this progresse by degrees the Iesuits request was presented to the Court of Parliament that had tenne Aduocates as Montaignes and Fon do confesse in their writinges in respect of 13. aduersaries Mont. ca. 22 Fon. ca. 4. which Fon reports were sixe boysterous mightie limmed bodies to wit the Vniuersities the Sorbons the Mendicants the Hospitals and the Parish priests With other foure Lordes of great authoritie namely the Gouernour of Paris the Cardinall Chastilion as protector of the Vniuersitie the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of S. Geniueue Now can we be so sencelesse as to thinke that so many both of the better and meaner sort banded against them without cause in a matter of so great importance But what were the commons those which of late memorie plagued the Hugonots out of all measure raced the walls of Patriarch and Popincourt where they had theyr exercise of religion who by order of Lawe procurd the death of Gabaston the Captaine of their garde and protector of theyr attempts together with Cagres both the Father and the sonne So many Sages of the common people sworne enemies to heresie did sette thēselues against the Iesuits lying but yet in the suburbs of our ciuill warres against the Iesuits I say who then vaunted themselues to be the scourge of Hereticks Assuredly it cannot be but that all those great personages who then vndertooke the quarrell against them were perswaded that this Sect was extreamely to be feared as well by the libertie of the French Church and generall estate of Fraunce as of all Christendome Besides these two great parties there was yet another more strong mightie then them both namely Mounsieur Mesnil the Kings Aduocate in the Court of parliament directly opposite to them But for all this great multitude of partakers sayth the Iesuite the matter came not to open triall but was put ouer to coūsell as a plaine argument that the goodnesse of our cause did craue very much fauour Poore foole and young Scholler hadst thou been brought vp in the light of the Royall pallace or read the course of iustice of our kings as thou art nuzled in the dust of the Colledges thou shouldst haue knowne that the high Courts admit no open triall of great causes they haue no time nor leysure duly to informe theyr consciences As appeares by a like course helde by the same Court in the month of Iuly 94. And for this cause Mounsieur Marion pleading against the Iesuits of Lyons in the yeere 97. said that a defectiue and imperfect prudence of the yeere 64. was in some sort the occasion that the affaires of Fraunce degenerated with the time waxed worse and worse As for my selfe I will say more boldly with open face that this matter was in the yeere 64. put ouer to counsell by the wisedome of men but thys counsaile was guided by the hand of God who to take vengeance of our sinnes preserued the Iesuits as a deuoted instrument hung aside in the Temple fit for the future miseries of Fraunce To what purpose is all this saue onely this to shewe you that if I detest abhorre the Sect of Iesuits I haue no small shelters for my oppinion first the venerable censure of Paris the yere 1554. wherein were the greatest Diuines that euer were in Fraunce and by name Picard Maillard Demochares Perionius Ory the Inquisiter for matters of faith The first an admirable preacher whose body after his death being layd forth in his house in the Deanry of S. Germins of Lauxerrois the people of Paris for the sanctimony of his life did striue to kisse his feete the foure other his companions were extreame persecutors of the Heretiks I haue the great decree of the French church in the yeere 61. the iudgement that did second it and finally many men of marke and communalty set against them in the yeere 1564. Amongst these I may speake it for a certainty which I ought to beleeue because I saw it There was two honorable resemblances of antiquitie Solicitors in the cause Bennet the Deane and Courselles the Subdeane of the facultie of the Diuinitie Schooles in Paris The one fourscore yeeres of age the other threescore seauenteene both ready to depart from hence to giue vp an account of theyr actions in another world at which time euery man standes stricte vppon his conscience With them was Faber Sindic one of the wisest men that euer was among the Sorbons In the winding vp of all I will set downe Ma. Noell Brullarte Procurator generall the great Aristides and Cato of his time which liuing in the yeere 50. withstood the receiuing of the Iesuites I tell you this expresly to discouer how like the iugling of the Iesuits of our time is to the former For Fon is so impudent as to report that Ramus Mercerus after they became the Kings Professors reuolted from our auncient Religion and were folicitors in this cause and that if they had not encountred them they had won the field but to auoid sedition the Court was forced warilie to strike saile to the tempest by putting the matter off to counsell Well but yet thou lyest most impudently thou Iesuit Pardon me for it is very fit I should be in choller Neither Ramus nor Mercerus for theyr parts euer stirred in this although they tooke part with their brethren the Kings Professors because they would not separate thēselues from the body of the Vniuersitie Moreouer what likelihood is there that the mindes generally of the Parisiens could be so suddenly changed to take part with the Hugonots Mercerus was so farre from faction that hee had no skill in any thing but Hebrue wherein he spent all his time without intermission and became so great a Superlatiue in that tongue that by the iudgement of the best learned he was preferd before all the Iewes In all worldly matters hee stoode but for a bare Cypher But this is a Iesuiticall priuiledge to vnderset theyr slaunders with the time by newe cogges For if this Iesuit Fon durst he would say that the towne the Vniuersitie and the facultie of Diuinitie in Paris all the foure orders of Mendicants the Parish priests were Hugonots because they hindred the matriculation of this holy Order what other consequence can be deduced from his speech Oh singuler and admirable impudencie yet to be excused because it proceedeth from a Iesuit Neuerthelesse to shew with what truth integrity I mean to confound thē in their lying they caused Versoris Plea to be printed in the yere 94. he to bring the Vniuersity into hatred In the 24. 32. leafe of Versoris Plea saith first formost not that Mercerus but Ramus Gallandius were made solicitors in this cause but this was so far frō all likelihood of truth that euery man tooke it for an hyperbole by reason of the open enmity they caried to all times which accompanied them vnto their death This enmity Rablays the Lucian
first aboade After thys when they had a Colledge made ready for them and gates open in the house of Langres in S. Iames streete he did eate and drinke with them daily before hee was confined to the Monasterie of S. Martine Heereby you may see that no man then doubted he was a Iesuit What was then his impietie grounded vppon his Mother Iane Beeing nowe to bicker with these pretended nauigators of Affrick euery man must vnderstand that they breede as many newe Monsters as men When Postell had beene many yeeres the Kings Professor of the Greeke tongue in the Vniuersitie of Paris he left his place desirous to hoist sayle for Palestina as the good Ignace did from thence he came back to Venice about the time of the good Ignace where hee grew acquainted with a supersticious old beldam cald Mother Iane whom hee made his Mother A little while after he returned to Paris to the Colledge of Lombards with his companions the Iesuits where hee printed a booke intituled The victory of Women In which he maintaind that our Sauiour Iesus Christ redeemed the superiour world onely that is Man and that his Mother Iane was sent from God to saue the inferiour world that is Women adding Pythagoras dreames to his impietie Hee sought to perswade men that the soule of Saint Iohn the Baptist was transfused into her And in another leafe that the soule of Saint Iohn the Baptist was once in a Gold-smith Shee was apparrelled like a Iewe with a great Gaberdine of a tawny cullour shee went through the Cittie bare-headed and bare-footed wearing a hideous long hayre crying repentance for the end of the world was at hand This newe S. Iohn the Baptist was afterward burnt aliue by the course of iustice helde in the Court of Parliament of Tolosa which would neuer take the weakenes of her wit for payment And in sooth many men maruailed that Postell was not executed in like manner For his booke was sold publiquely by Porters and it cannot any way be excused except the Iesuits by I know not what externall infatuations wherwith they doe inchaunt vs haue their safe conduct for euery thing I perswade my selfe that Richeome wil one day bring in this for a great miracle in his booke of miracles Wee haue to this day other remnants of Postell for the same Pasquier pleading the cause saide that Ignace was no lesse factious troublesome in the Church then Martine Luther that both the one and the other were borne in one centenary of yeeres Martine in the yeere 1488. Ignace in the yeere 1491. Each of them erected his sect saying he drew all his principles from the primitiue Church that thereby they might the more easilie draw the simple people to their line but that the Ignacian sect was more to be feared then the Lutherans running through a ranke of reasons which hee had coucht together A speciall one was that euery one of vs would take heede of Luther whom we iudged an Heretique contrariwise that in the behalfe of Ignace it was an easie matter for men to be ouer-taken by I knowe not what kinde of hypocriticall countenaunce vvhich they put on This sole conclusion saith Fon shewes Pasquier to be full of ignorance and malice and if he speak in good earnest hee is like vnto that Atheist whom I dare not name that made such a comparison betweene Moses and his law and Mahomet and his sect called them both deceiuers How so Because he that likens Ignace to Luther is as impious as the other that compared Moses and Mahomet together Moses was expresly chosen of GOD to deliuer his people out of the captiuitie of Egypt and the tyrannie of the Pharaos For Moses sake the sea miraculously opened it selfe to make him way God appeared to Moses and talked with him and by his prayers all the while he lifted vp his hands to heauen the same great GOD made the children of Israell victorious I doe not thinke any man was euer so wicked that hee durst make comparison betweene Moses and Mahomet and if there be any of that stamp I take our Iesuits to be as bad as he in comparing Ignace with Moses This comparison would be strange to mee but ouer-looking theyr other Iesuiticall bookes I found it to be a very familiar matter with them For Father Haniball Codret neuer doubted to write that his companie tooke theyr name from God who made them the companions of his deere sonne Iesus Christ which so accepted of them And in their annuall Letters of the yeere 1589. the Iesuits of the Colledge of our Lady of Loreto writing to theyr Generall make mention of a little deuill coniurd by one of thē in the Name of IESVS whereat he was some-what angry but when they pressed him with the name of Ignace then began the deuill to play the deuill indeede more then he did before such a feare had he of this holy name These blasphemies are the least escapes of our Iesuits this Familie hath good store of others whereof I trust one day to make you a good and faithfull Inuentorie But sithence that by leaping from one matter to another I stept before I was aware vpon the proces and course of times I will returne to our Ignace and his companions to shewe you vvhat theyr craftie conueiance was to purchase entertainment when they came to Rome CHAP. II. ¶ The studies of great Ignace THE yeere 1524. Ignace began to studie at Barcelona beeing three thirty yeeres of age a course of life which he could not well relish for hauing as he bragd his mind wholy mounted vp to heauen he could not strike the wing to come downe so low as the declensions of Nounes which matter saith Maffe as it were presaging thinges to come Maff. lib. 1. cap. 17. Ribad lib. 1. cap. 13. was furthered by the wicked enemie of mankind especially at that time offering him many visions and opening to him the secrete misteries of the holy Scripture I think that neuer man spake truer then hee for all these pretended contemplations of Ignace were meer mummeries of the deuill who desired to present vs with such a man as might by his ignorance trouble the whole state of the Church In this conflict hee spent two yeeres at Barcelona about the expiring whereof iumping ouer his studies he remoued to the Vniuersitie of Alcala where he made a shew of study in Logique naturall Philosophie and Diuinitie In Logique saith Maffe he began to turne ouer those whom we call Termini In naturall Phylosophie Albert. In Diuinitie the maister of the Sentences I leaue it to your considerations whether these bookes were fit for him to handle as a man that had doone all that was for him to doe who studied his Gramer but two yeeres when as yet he had employed his fiue sences without taking his flight to any other dessigne for the most conuersant in learning are much cumbred with vnderstanding Albertus much more with the
read of Balaams Asse and this Ignatius his Mule without the which he had most furiously executed his disseignment Therefore I finde no whit strange the resignation he hath made of the same furie vnto his successors with whom I list not dispute whether it be fit or no but send them after his example vnto a Mule for resolution At this word the Iesuit woulde needes lay himselfe open Excuse me I pray you quoth he me thinks you deliuer not the vvhole matter For Ribadinere one of them of whom you borrowed this historie sayth that Ignatius at that time was surprised with a remembrance of his old Adam Homo quippe militaris fallaci veri honoris irâ—itatione olim elusus he was falne into this foolish opinion of reuenge but that afterwards arriuing at our Ladies Church of Mountserrat hee hung before her alter all his weapons after hee had confessed himselfe by writing of all his sinnes three dayes together Ibi optimo confessario totius vitae suae crimina per triduum ex scripto confessus est illique homini omnium primo animi sui propositum aperuit iumentum reliquit gladium pugionemque quibus Mundo meruerat ante aram beatissimae Matris Dei apendi iussit which was in the yeere 1522. Truly replyed the Aduocate I heeded not those 4. or 5. lines when I perused Ribadinere and I thank you hartilie for putting mee in minde of them for I will vse but this one poynt to shewe your Sect to be most wicked and most vnhappy that hauing this faire goodlie mirror of your Father and Author before your eyes your heads haue entertaind no other obiects but the disquiet of the Realmes you liue in especially of our countrey of Fraunce as I will proue immediatly CHAP. 11. ¶ Of the holy League brought by the Iesuits the yere 1585. into Fraunce and that they are the cause of the Hugonots new-footing among vs. HEtherto I haue discoursed vnto you of the murders paricids and massacres of Kings princes now I will shewe you the ruine and desolation of kingdoms procured by them and beginne first with our owne It is not for a King of Fraunce saith the Iesuit in his Most humble Request to reuenge the quarrell of a King of Nauarre nor fits it the Churches eldest sonne to be sencible of what was done against an opinion contrarie to the Church Goodly words which I remember often so wel they please mee as though the Iesuits had onely warred against the King now liuing and no way touched the last Henry the third not onely adorned with the title of Most Christian a title long agoe bestowed on our kings but who among the most Christian was in particuler the most Catholick We saw him in the beginning of his raigne follow the Iesuits beeing charmed by them and holding them the soundest Catholicks afterwards the Priers Minims of Nigeon hard by Paris where hee had his chamber for his priuate prayers by night on festiuall dayes and for his deuotion at theyr Mattins at certaine other seasons then haunted hee the Capuchins and Feuillants and with a like zeale instituted the brotherhood of the Penitentiaries Whippers and after all this the congregation of the Hieronimits at our Ladies of Vincennes where hee and his companions changed theyr habits as Munks on those dayes and feasts whereon they were confined thether I know well that his enemies imputed all this to hypocrisie for his ill hap or to say more truly their vnhappie shifts would haue led men to turne all his actions to the worst If you say that the greatest part of such as ioyned with him did it for hypocrisie onely to please him I belieue you say most truly but as for him I doubt not but he did it onely to please God It were a want of common sence to auerre that a King nourished in the midst of delights and fulnes of all pleasures would haue chosen this painfull course had hee not beene drawne vnto it by true zeale and deuotion hee who otherwise had tenne thousand means to credit him selfe by such leud hypocrisies may fall into the harts of meane companions who by religions maske striue to seaze on new greatnes but not into theirs whose auncient right assures it them alreadie Then must the Iesuite the hypocrite raze this clause out of his paper that the warre whereof I will hereafter speake was vndertaken against a King of any other opinion then the coÌ„mon it resteth to know by whom the warre was vndertaken Some charge Princes and great Lords with it therein altogether are deceiued I will deliuer it at large vnto you After the decree of the yeere 1564. had passed we liued in some rest throughout all Fraunce vntil the yere 1567. about which time the enteruiew had at Bayon betweene vs and the Spanyard vndid vs. For it put iealousies perhaps not without cause into the hart of such as were not thorowly setled Ielousies that bred in Fraunce tenne thousand mischiefes which to remember makes my haire to stare Nowe let vs examine the Iesuits carriage during this loose generall corruption A surceasing from Armes being appointed in councel the yeere 64 they thought also to haue had leysure enough for the venting their ambition WheÌ„ their cause was pleaded that irregular profession of theirs was onelie dealt against the wiser sort foresaw as in a clowde that this Impostume could not chuse in time but yeelde a malignant and lothsome matter though to poynt at it in particuler none either could or durst because that outward simplicitie wherewith they shadowed their inward thoughts surprised euen such as wished theÌ„ most euill for they imagined the Iesuits would haue forwarded our Religion by good examples zealous prayers wholesome manners holy exhortations and not by Armes But stayed they in these termes nothing lesse they brought into their houses the knowledge of State matters they made themselues Iudges of Princes actions disposing them at their owne pleasure they contriued warres thereby to compasse their dessignes and the Pulpits out of which they preached were to no other vse but as Drums Fifes and Trumpets to incense our Princes in theyr combats one against another And especially we are not to doubt of their beeing the Authors solicitors and cherishers of our last troubles a thing which not onely they denie not but make theyr boast of in their bookes as you may find in that of the Iesuit La Fon. I vndertake not in this place to recite at large the storie of these troubles this only I wil tel you that before the yere 1576 wee neuer had put the word League in vse it was onely familiar in Italie the chiefe harbor of Iesuits VVhen the Parliament was held at Blois a Lord of some note in Paris whom I will not name whose hart was wholly Iesuited and who on festiuall dayes left his own Parish-church to be present at their Masses sent to the Deputies of Paris these instructions following In this
a full congregation for their Aduocate Hauing prepared my selfe for the cause being armed with that sacred Decree which the facultie of Diuinity had pronounced against them in the yeere 1554. where those two great pillers of our Catholique Religion Monsieur Picard and Monsieur Maillard were assistants I was perswaded that I was able with a free and vncontrouled conscience to encounter hand to hand with this monster which being neyther Secular nor Regular was both togither and therefore brought into our Church an ambiguous or mungrell profession We pleaded this case two whole forenoones Maister Peter Versoris and I he for the Iesuits I for the Vniuersitie before an infinite multitude of people who attended to see the issue thereof Maister Baptist du Menill the Kings Aduocate a man of great sufficiencie was for me In my declaration I alledged the irrigularitie of their profession the iudgement and determination of the whole facultie of Diuinitie pronounced against them tenne yeeres before the obiection made by Monsieur Bruslard the Kings Attorney Generall against their admittance for that their vow was cleane contrarie to ours that if we should harbour them in our bosome we should bring in a Schisme amongst vs and besides so many espials for Spayne and sworne enemies to Fraunce the effects whereof wee were like to feele vpon the first chaunge that the iniquitie of time might bring vpon vs. Notwithstanding for the conclusion we were referred to Counsell Eyther partie both got and lost the day For neither were they incorporated into the Vniuersity nor yet prohibited to continue their accustomed readings When God hath a purpose to afflict a realme he planteth the roots thereof long time before hand These new-come guests blind and bewitch the people by shewes of holines and fayre promises For as if they had the gift of tongues which the holy Ghost infused into the Apostles they made their boasts that they forsooth went to preach the Gospel in the midst of barbarous and sauage people they that God knowes had ynough to do to speake their mother tongue With these pleasant baits did they inueigle and draw the multitude into their snares But as they had brought in a motly religion of Secular and Regular disturbing by meanes thereof all the Hierarchie of our Church so did they intend to trouble thence-forward all the politique states in Christendome In as much as by a newe inuented rule they beganne to mingle and confound the State with their religion And as it is easie to fall from liberty to vnbridled licence so did they vpon this irriguler rule of theirs ground the most detestable heresie that can be deuised affirming that it is lawfull to murther any Prince that should not conforme himselfe to their principles treading vnder foot both the checke which our Sauiour gaue to Saint Peter when he drew his sword in his defence and the Canon of the Councell of Constance whereby they were pronounced accurst that set abroach this position When I pleaded the cause I mentioned not these two propositions against them For though they bred them in their hearts yet had they not as yet hatched them only I said that there was no good to be hoped for of this monster but that they would euer put in practise eyther that principle which was broched by the old Moūtainer who in time of our wars beyond the Seas dispersed his subiects called cut-throats or murtherers through the the Prouinces to slay the Christian Princes or that horrible Anabaptisme which sprung vp in Germanie when we were young this should I neuer haue imagined Notwithstanding both the one and the other Maxime hath beene by them put in execution in the sight and knowledge of all Christendome For as concerning the first there is no man but knowes that they hauing set foot in Portugall not vnder the title of Iesuits but of Apostles they sollicited King Sebastian by all maner of illusions to make an vniuersall law that none might be called to the Crowne vnlesse he were of their Societie and moreouer elected by the consent suffrages of the same VVhereunto they could not attayne albeit they met with the most deuout and superstitious Prince that could be And not to lead you out of our owne countrie of Fraunce they were the men that kindled the first coales of that accursed League which hath beene the vtter ruine and subuersion of the land It was first of all debated amongst them and being concluded they constituted their Fathers Claudius Matthaeus a Lorrain and Claudius Sammier of Luxembourg for so are their Priests of greatest antiquitie called to be their trumpets for the proclayming thereof ouer all forraine nations And after that time did they with open face declare themselues to be Spaniards as well in their Sermons as publique Lectures In fauour of whom they attempted to bring their second principle into practise not all the while that the King was diuided from vs in religion for they knew that was a barre sufficient to keepe him from the Crowne but as soone as they saw him reclaymed into the bosome of the Church they set on worke one Peter Barriere a man resolute for execution but weake and tender in conscience whom they caused to be confessed in their Colledge at Paris afterwards to receiue the Sacrament and hauing confirmed him by an assured promise of Paradise as a true Martyr if he died in that quarrell set forward this valiant Champion who was thrise at the the verie point to execute his accursed enterprise and God as often miraculously stayed his hand vntill at length being apprehended at Melun he receiued the iust hyre of his trayterous intention in the yeere 1593. I speake nothing but what mine eyes can witnesse and what I had from his owne mouth when he was prisoner View peruse all the impieties that you will you shall find none so barbarous as this To perswade an impietie and then to couer it with such a seeming maske of pietie In a word to destroy a soule a King Paradise and our Church all at a blow to make way for their Spanish and halfe-Pagan designements All these new allegations caused the Vniuersitie of Paris the Citie being brought vnder the Kings obedience to renew their former suit against them which had beene stayed before time by the Counsels appoyntment The cause was pleaded effectually and learnedly by Maister Authonie Arnald but when the processe was brought to the verie poynt of Iudgement there fell out another accident which made them proceed roundly thereunto Iohn Chastell a Paritian of the age of 19. yeeres a graft of this accursed Seminarie stroke our king Henris the fourth with a knife in his Royall Pallace of the Louvre in the midst of his Nobilitie He is taken his processe being commenced and finished sentēce ensueth dated the 29. of December 1594. the tenour wherof followeth Being viewed by the Court the great Chamber and the Tournel being assembled the arraignement of processe criminall begun
did proceed onely from their folly accompanied alwaies with one of these sixe lying spirits For example and to vse his owne words From their manifest folly bad spirit from their folly passionate spirirt from their folly and presumptuous spirit from their folly and vnshamefast spirit from their folly and malignant spirit and from their folly and deceiued spirit With this folly and these sixe wicked spirits he raiseth vp tempests against vs by Sea and land and playeth the Exorcist in such sort throughout his whole discourse as if hee had beene Frier Weston another Pidgeon of the same Doue-coate at Denham when the time was whereof wee feare a straunge relation and so dealeth with our said brethren as though eyther hee himselfe or they good men were diuels indeed And shall wee say that this man hath no gall in him but in mildnesse of his speech and simplicitie of his heart is like a Doue Hee that shall with anie iudgement read his said treatise will rather thinke he was brought vp in a Crowes-nest Some men are much deceiued if both he and many of his crue might not for their stinging and poysoned writings be better resembled to Hornets and Dragons then to so milde a fowle as a Doue is reported to be by all that write of her But certaine persons will say vnto vs you see not that part of the wallet that hangs at your owne backes It is true that wee are not ignorant how greatly some of our said brethren are blamed and Maister Watson chiefely by many of you how iust soeuer their cause bee for the bitternesse of their stile and we wish with all our hearts that they had tempered their pennes better not in respect of the Iesuits but of your weakenes God forgiue vs all our sinnes In multis enim offendimus omnes For in many things wee offend all Si quis in verbo non offendit hic perfectus est vir If any offend nor in his speeches he is a perfect man But yet some further defence may be made of our brethrens said bitternes mens generall imperfections alwaies considered wherwith we often stayne euen our best actions It must bee confessed by all men that are of any vnderstanding that sharpenesse eyther of speech or style is not alwaies to bee disliked The olde Prophets Christ himselfe his Apostles many holy Saints and Fathers haue vsed this kind of bitternes and sharpe writing when they saw cause To which purpose much might be alleadged as also to shewe that oftentimes wounds are better then kisses fretting tents corasiues and incisions more needfull then gentle milde lenitiue and ouer hastie skinning plaisters So as hereof there being no question amongst vs or any other of discretion the doubt then is whether the Iesuits or we haue the better cause and consequently whether of vs may better pretend the testimonie of Gods Spirit a good conscience true zeale perfect charitie and the practise of Christ of his Apostles and of many auncient fathers for the sharpenes of our writings Maister Parsons speaketh in his said manifestation of his owne long and accustomed practise and experience where he saith That an euill argument may sometimes by cunning and smooth handling or by shewing wit learning of zeale or modesty be made plausible to the vulgar Reader And indeed therein he hath an especiall gift aboue all men that we know For no mans writings are generally more spightfull and galling then his But it is mixt with such stoods of Crocodils teares when he guirdeth most as that he then alwaies pretendeth such deuotion and charitie as though euerie hard word he vseth went to his verie heart and that hee would not deale so roughly with any of his brethren for his life were it not that for their good and amendement hee were driuen thereunto of meere necessitie And with these fayre pretences the simpler sort are greatly blinded But by his leaue it is also as certain that if a true cause be cleerely and at the full deliuered although it be done with no such hypocritical skill but with some choller and heat of humour as zeale sometime is tearmed he is but likewise a verie vulgar Reader and of a shallow reach that will therefore be led to discredit the truth vpon so light a ground Men of sound iudgement will alwaies looke to the issue of the matter in question and not to the manner of pleading More therefore of the cause it selfe wherevpon this doubt before mentioned doth arise Wee hope we may truly say it as in the sight of God and without all pharisaical ostentation that we are not ambitious that we seeke no exemptions from our lawfull superiour that we honour discipline and embrace it that we craue to haue Bishops to ouer-see punish control vs whē we doe amisse and that we labour chiefly in these disastrous quarrels to withstand so great an innouation general disgrace to all the Seculer Cleargie in Christendome as neuer yet hapned if we should yeeld to be at the checke and direction either of Frier Garnet Frier Parsons or any or all the Iesuits in the world And wee are the rather so earnest against both them and their plottings to this purpose because we likewise know their further practises and most wicked designements against both our Prince and country how they ingaged thēselues with the Spaniards her Maiesties professed enemies So as might the Iesuits once beare rule ouer al both Priests people as let the state look to it in time for they haue further preuailed here in alreadie then we are glad of it would not be long before this kingdom were brought into a general cōbustion Is our cause then so iust and theirs so impious and should we be silent Doe they say vnto vs with Tobias the Ammonite That do what you can a Foxe shall be able to ouerthrow all your opposition z. Esdras 4. The Infanta of Spaine shall be your Queene and that sooner then you looke for and shall we not say as it is there in the Text Auds Deus noster quia facti sumus despectui conuerte opprobrium super caput eorum da eos in despectionem in terra captiuitatis Heare vs O our God heare vs and because they doe despise vs and our endeuours to maintayne both the Church and our countrey against their machinations giue them ouer that they may be a despised and contemptible generation throughout all the world if in time they repent not Can any true harted English Catholick seeing how the case nowe standeth betwixt vs and these men be iustly offended with this our zeale Hath God made vs annoynted priests here amongst you and shal we see a sword drawne out against this Land and not sounde out our trumpet to sumon you to battell One telleth you verie plainlie in his Latine Appendix and we suppose it is our R. Arch-priest him selfe that Cardinall Allen and Father Parsons as Moses and Iosue iam diu
name which they had once giuen as they thought vnto the truth Nay the matter proceeded so farre that this name grew to be imposd vppon the rest of that societie almost throughout all Portugall Trust me this passage is of such desert that I should deceiue these good men if I should not translate it into French to discouer with howe great pietie they haue purchast this title For Fraunces Xauier is honoured for a great Saint among all the Iesuits Was there euer any impietie or imposture greater then this that these two hypocrits to be counted Apostles bruted it abroad that two new supplies were added to their Sect to make vp the number of twelue Apostles and that vpon this false alarum they were called Apostles This was against theyr will saith Turcelline belieue the reporter For Xauier tooke speciall care not to loose his tytle when hee came into the Indies Tincel 2. booke of Xauiers life cap. 3. Therefore as before in Portugall so in India he began to be commonly calld an Apostle and the same title afterwards flowed from Francis as from the Head to the rest of his fellowes Tell me I beseech you whether this be not to renue the heresie of Manes whose followers were cald Manichees he naming himselfe the Paraclet had twelue Disciples whom he cald Apostles and for such he sent them abroad one by one to other prouinces to spread abroad the poyson of his heresie through their preaching To say the truth Ignace neuer tooke on him the name of Paraclet yet was he willing inough to be accounted for another Iesus by his company As I wil discourse to you in his proper place when I come to speak of their blind obedience He did not only take this authority power vpon himselfe But resigned it ouer also to all the Generals of his order that succeeded him who in like manner haue embraced the title of Apostles wherewith their inferiours were endowed in Portugall This is apparant in Rome and yet no man sees it but quite contrarie this Family is there had in honourrable regard vpon a wrong conceit men haue entertained touching their absolute obedience whereof these my Maisters make semblance vnto the Pope And shall we hereafter haue any maruaile to heare a barking at the holy Sea by diuersities of new opinions that fight against it Pardon me I beseech thee O holy Sea for it is the heat of my zeale deuoted to thee that inforceth me to vtter this speech Great and vnspeakable are Gods iudgements to suffer that in the Citie of Rome in your sight and knowledge there should bee a Manes continued by successions from one to another which hath not twelue onely but infinite Apostles dispersed here and there God will reuenge it early or late though it be by his enemies The Aduocate as a man much wounded in heart was desirous to prosecute this in a chafe when the Iesuit interrupting him said Verie well sir you are in daunger to be drawen drie Marking your discourse you put me in mind of those young Historiographers which imputed it for folly to Alexander the great that he would haue all men thinke him to be Iupiters sonne they attributed this to his immoderate ouer-weening neuerthelesse it was an excellent wise drift of his Can you imagine why so long as the country of king Darius was the marke he shot at he was too wise to take that title vpon him and chose rather to thrust forward his fortune by ordinarie meanes of armes But as soone as he plotted to passe into India a kind of new world deuided from ours he would haue the people perswaded by the great Priest of Aegypt that he was Iupiters sonne and from that time he would be adored as such a one not by the Macedonians his natural subiects bred in the liberty of a Greeke spirit But by the barbarous people with such respect and beliefe that from that time forward they should take him not to be a meere Prince but a great God that came to the conquest of the Indies this deuice tooke so good effect that he made himselfe Lord of the country without striking stroke The Kings Potentates and common people saying that their countrey was first vanquished by Bacchus then by Hercules both sonnes of Iupiter and that the whole rule and Dominion was reserued for the comming of Alexander a third sonne of his Thinke you our Societie followes not this plot you see we neuer tooke the name of Apostles any where but in Portugall but when we were to go to the same Indies where Alexander had beene we thought as he did that it was fit we should be authorized beyond others by a more ample sacred and maiesticall title which was to be called Apostles It had beene ill for vs to challenge it in Portugall if Xauier had not continued it by an entercourse of his companie after his arriuall in the Indies to the end he might be reputed another Saint Thomas sent thither after the passion of our Sauiour Iesus Christ And it were impossible to recount what conquests of soules we made there vnder this holy perswasion Ha quoth the Aduocate verily if this be your fashion I haue nothing to do with you for as when you entred Italy you borrowed I know not what of their Mountebanks so would you do the like of Machiauell in Portugall and the Indies Meane while you my maisters that haue bragged much of your knowledge in Diuinitie haue verie ill turnd ouer the history of the kings in the the Bible from whence you gather by a continued ranke that God tooke away the crownes of all the Kings of Israel as oft as they became Idolaters eyther while they liued or in all time to come neuer suffered them to descend vnto their children How thinke you I pray ye that God hath left the true Kings of Portugall without heires and that their Realme came into the hands of the first Prince that caught it That one Don Anthonio a bastard one Katherine de Medices Queene-mother of our King pretended title to it and last of all that one Philip King of Spaine became maister of it without any great resistance I will not discourse in partriculer of the goodnes of his title for mine one part I thinke that the best title he had was the iustice of God whō it pleased in reuenge of the giddie Idolatrie and blasphemie of the kings and people to make this realme without triall of the cause passe from one family to another by this holy title of Apostles attributed to these hypocrites And I perswade my selfe that the King of Spayne now raigning will one day fall into the like mischiefe if he suffer this impietie CHAP. 10. ¶ The impieties of William Postell a Iesuits BVt why should we thinke this blaphemie strange in them if within few yeeres after they tooke the title of Apostles on them some one of them was found so abhominable in the sight of God and man
that he cald the power of our Sauiour Iesus Christ in question vpon the point of our Redemption The man I speake of is William Postell against whom Pasquier declaimed in his Plea on this manner For so much as they buz nothing in the cares of simple women but their pietie which they fasten to their Robes with a claspe and a poynt marke whether they they be such indeed as they protest in words We haue the Benedictines Barnardines Dominicans Franciscans and other like orders At the beginning of these professions the authors therof were found to be men of so holy life that by common consent of the Church they were registred in the Kalender of Saints Wherevpon many drawen by their good life desired to trace after them Peraduenture we shall likewise find that the first of the Iesuits sect were men of so holy and austere life that we ought to be so farre of from any dislike of them as on the contrary we should rather wish to be incorporated into them About ten or twelue yeeres ago one of your old Factors came to this towne a man as farre exceeding you in knowledge as you do the simple handy-crafts man This was Maister William Postell we heard him preach read and write He had a large Cassack reaching down to the middle leg a long Robe girt about him an Episcopal bonnet accompanied with a pale withered face which bewraied nothing but great austeritie and he said Masse with manie nice ceremonies not common in the Church All this while what did he bring forth One mother Iane an impietie an heresie the most detestable that euer was heard of since the incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ The Donatists the Arians the Pelagians neuer did such a thing VVhere preached hee Not in mountanie or desert places where men are wont to plant new religions it was in the fayre hart of Fraunce in the Cittie of Paris Of what Order was hee Of thys venerable Societie of Iesus Ha beleeue mee if your societie bring such monsters foorth if you ingender so damnable effects God graunt wee neuer be of this societie The Iesuits to this day deny it very stoutly that Postell was euer of their societie and not onely deny it but as soone as Pasquier obiected it when he pleaded the cause against them they said it was a new addition put to his olde Plea when he printed it Chap. 42. Pasquier shewes himselfe saith the wisard Fon to haue lost all the faculties of his soule his vnderstanding his vvill and his memorie his vnderstanding is full of darkenes his will full of gale his memory fraught with obliuion For when the cause was pleaded in the yeere 64. Postell was then aliue confined to the Monasterie of S. Martine of the fieldes at Paris where hee liued vntill the yeere 1580. Neuerthelesse this good pleader speakes of him as if he had beene dead long before And a little after last of all you must note that Pasquier spake not this when he pleaded for he had beene checkt for so impudent a lie and hissed at by the whole world that saw Postell then present but this was written one and twentie yeeres after when he defierd to publish it And so is he contrary to himselfe forgetting to take that counsell the Prouerb giues Oportet mendacem esse memorem to the end he may draw vp the peeces of falshood so close that no body might perceiue the seame And if you will belieue me it was not without cause the Iesuits plaid this Pauin to this Perric dauncer for if Postell were a Iesuite they are vndone Therefore I beseech you let vs examine three things The first whether Pasquier made this obiection The second whether Postell were of their companie And thirdly what vvas that impietie which he sought to bring into our Religion vnder the name of his mother Iane For as good fellowes vse to say The sport is worthy of a candle Concerning the first Pasquier neuer spake of Postell as of a dead man to prooue it the beginning of the passage is thus About tenne or twelue yeeres agoe one of your companie came to this Towne a man that passeth you as much as you doe the meane Artificer By these words you see he spake as of a man then liuing but hee added afterward This was Ma. William Postell carrying backe all the coherence of this discourse to the time of tenne or twelue yeeres past when Postell built vp an heresie vppon his Mother Iane as you may gather from the same passage which shewes that the Iesuits haue neither vnderstanding iudgement nor memory stumbling in this manner vpon Pasquier and this is it which in the yeere 1594. they caused to be imprinted in Versoris Plea of the yeere 64. which was an answere to Pasquiers Plea if you take vp the booke and reade it in the 36. leafe you shal finde these wordes Jt is obiected against vs that Postell vvas likewise of our company that by these bad fruites you may see what the tree was I aske them what were the fruites of Iudas must we for them condemne our Lord and his Apostles And a little after Postell was neuer professed in our house he was a very Nouice and sent away Would you haue a more euident demonstration then this to proue both that Pasquier spake of Postell liuing and that he made this obiection For otherwise Versoris had fought with his owne shadow Let vs nowe consider whether Postell were of their order And to make it good that hee was I apply that which I euen now read vnto you Versoris Pasquier were two braue Champions brought to combate in the Lists before the chiefe Senate of Fraunce at the foyles The blow deliuered against Postell offended all the order in respect of the place he helde among them Had not hee beene one of them that great Aduocate Versoris had neuer winded himselfe away from this stroke as he did but rather had denied it roundly as the Iesuits now doe thinking that the distance of time hath raced it out of remembrance but knowing that the truth then apparant would haue complained of him hee was not so hardie By meanes whereof swimming between two billowes he acknowledged him to be a Nouice of theyr Companie but afterward shut out of doores Of this expulsion you shall not be able to quoate any time For after hee printed his booke of Mother Iane that stunke in the nose of all the world they would neuer haue suffered him to become a Nouice as likewise that is verified that a little after his booke was condemned and the Authour confined to the Monasterie of S. Martins As before this hee was too great a man in all kinde of learning and of the tongues to shut him out of theyr company so was he seene publiquely apparrelled after the Iesuits maner in Paris in the Colledge of Lombards with Father Pasquier Broet and the other Iesuits in which house they had theyr
lessons euerie day but that which is much more when you consider that he was compeld to craue almes at mens houses for his reliefe his dinner was not readie for him To quite himselfe of this inconuenience he was forst to serue a Colledge a state wherein he might more easily find sustenance for his bodie but not for his soule for being come out of a hospital from a kind of beggerie to seruice neuer doubt but that he was employed in the most base and vile offices of a Colledge seruant which are to make the beds to sweep the chamber to brush his Maisters apparrell and to beate out the dust to hang the pot ouer the fire to runne fr wine to wash the dishes and other small duties depending vpon this charge Iudge you what breathing time hee could haue for his booke In fine during these 18. monthes he made many voiages in the vacations as well into the Low-Countries as into England to recouer exhibition I would be very glad Maffee should tell mee what time of vacation was giuen vnto the Schollers for it is newes to me These voyages coulde not be made but by long iournies by a foote-man driuen to begge his liuing and the very cut ouer the Sea to passe into England is somwhat to be considered Put all these circumstances together howe much time had he left him for his Grammer studies of the 18. monthes at the end whereof they make him leape with a pitch-forke into Phylosophy which was vnfit for it and beyond all hope he grew a great Phylosopher and afterward a profound Diuine Such Schollers as haue past the streights of Grammer and Rethorique haue thereunto ioyned the reading of Oratory Historiographers Poets Greeke and Latine become in fiue or sixe yeeres space hardly able to enter the course of Phylosophie and would they haue vs thinke this man who neuer had sixe monthes free leysure to learne his Grammer among chyldren becam a great Phylosopher All these things giue the lye openly to this hystorie For the same man during the time of the three yeeres a halfe of his course was put into the Inquisition beefore Fryer Mathew Ory Inquisitour of the fayth And he was to be whypt in the Hall of the Colledge of S. Barbe by the hands of Maister Iames Gouea Principall of the house Maff. lib. 1. cap. 20. Rib. lib. 1. cap. 3. vpon the complaint of Ma. Iohn Penna his Tutor because he put his fellowes out of theyr ordinarie course of studies And I know not with what emptie shewe of holines he peruerted the excellent state and discipline of that Schoole Ribad lib. 2. cap. 3. saith Ribadener Furthermore in the three yeeres of his course he intangled in his net one Faure Xauier Lainez Salmeron Bobadilla Roderic his first companions or rather to say truth his first Disciples with whom he afterward made the first stampe of his Societie at Montmarter I learne all this specially of Maffee yet is this braue calculator so vnaduised to tell vs that to make himselfe capable of Philosophie hee forgot all the old illusions of the diuell to giue himselfe the better leasure to studie without consideration calling that the diuels illusion which Ignace auouched to be deuotion Lay aside his Philosophie and call to mind his studie in Diuinity He proceeded Master of Arts in March 1532. then he fell into a long and tedious sicknes by the Phisitions counsell he changed ayre and went into Spayne in the moneth of Nouember 1535. Can you make him a great Diuine in three yeers which neuer laid any foundation in Grammer or Philosophie And to shew you that he was a great Asse I meane in respect of all kind of learning and not concerning the wisedome of the world wherein no bodie came neere him this is couertly acknowledged by the Iesuits themselues who feed you with no fables When Painters draw the picture of S. Hierom they lay a booke open in his hands to shew he was a man reputed the most learned of all our Church Doctors And when the Iesuits represent the figure of their Ignace they giue him a paire of beads in his hand in token of his ignorance for vpon these silie womeÌ„ say their praiers which can neither read nor write So shall you find him portraied by a sweet Ingrauer before a Crucifix in the forehead of Ribadiners booke printed at Lions by Iames Roussin in the yeere 1595. Reue de la Fon with a kind of synceritie of conscience a matter very familiar with him â—â—n lib. 1. cap. 38. frankly acknowledges the like when he saith That neuer any disgraced Saint Anthonie nor Saint Frances nor the Apostles a speech surely worthie of so deuout a Iesuit to set the Apostles behind hind Saint Anthony and S. Frances Were the Apostles studied saith he they drew their Diuine knowledge from the holy Ghost also Ignace fet his from the same holy Ghost though it were lesse in quantitie yet was it deriued from the same fountain And trust me I know in good earnest that Fon is a conscionable man to auouch his Ignace to be learned like Saint Anthonie who gloried that he knew nothing It is not so with Ignace of whom I take hold for his ignorance but with these two ignorant Iesuits Maffee Ribadiner which would make vs beleeue he was a great Philosopher and Diuine not considering that by publishing this in grosse they belye him by retayle in reckoning vp the parcels of his studies Neuerthelesse I would euerie man should vnderstand after what fashion the holy Ghost was lodged in Ignace and his companions when they put vp a supplication to Pope Paul the third for the approbation of their order CHAP. 12. ¶ That when Ignace and his companions came before Pope Paul the third they were plain Mounte-banks and that the titles they gaue theÌ„selues were false WHich way soeuer I turne me I find nothing but trecherie in this Iesuiticall Family euen from the beginning of their order when Ignace his fellowes preferd their requests to Pope Paul the third for the authorizing their holy company to take the name of Iesus the promise they made to him was to bring the heretikes backe againe into the bosome of the Church and to conuert the Turks and other miscreants vnto our faith A worke that not onely required they should bring a willing mind with them but sufficiencie and capacitie to performe it For this cause they were euer carefull not to be counted simple schollers for then men would haue mockt them and neuer haue called them Diuines They were too weak to grace themselues so far hauing no ground therfore after a smoother manner they tearmed themselues Maisters of Arts not of Spaine or Italy but of the great famous Vninersity of Paris And in the neck of it they added that they had studied Diuinity many yeeres The Pope to be resolued what fruite this newe order might bring forth committed the matter to
religion in you you haue no power at all to reuoke your vow made alreadie vnto God the place the day the misteries the Church twise or thrise frequented the things you bring with you bind you without hope of dispensation As for me I neither wil nor can dispence with you the law of God and the Gospell our canonicall constitutions my fayth my religion the vniuersall Church whereof I am the head forbids mee Howe thinke you would not Pope Paule haue flatly reiected them if hee had beene aduertisd of theyr false degrees and their fained studies of diuinitie and of their vowe made at Montmarter seeing there belongs much labour to gaine it before it be consented to Heereupon I doubt not but that their order beeing receiued and allowed by a manifest surprize and obreption theyr authorising is voide Consequently that all that is built vppon thys foundation is of no effect or validitie That the Iesuits let them fortifie themselues as much as they will by the Bull obtaind of him successiuely after the first of the yeere 1540. seeing the roote it selfe it rotten the tree can beare no fruite at all Hetherto I haue shewed you what an Asse Ignace was and what notable lyers hee had to his companions men altogether ignorant in diuinitie I will nowe make plaine to you that theyr sect which they call the societie of IESVS stands vppon ignorance of the antiquitie of our Church CHAP. 14. ¶ That the Oeconomie of our Church consistes first in succession of Bishops secondly in the ancient orders of religion thirdly in the Vniuersities and that the Iesuits Sect is built vpon the ignorance of all these NOt only the religious orders allowed by our Church but true Christians by what name or title soeuer they be called are not of the Iesuits Sect Christian humilitie forbids vs to speake so proudly but follow our Sauiour and Redeemer Iesus Christ after whose example and his Apostles we ought to frame our life as neere as we can that of his great infinite mercie he may take pleasure in vs. Ignace a very nouice and young apprentise in the holy Scriptures made choise of nine companions as raw in these matters as himselfe They bringing in their Sect imagined themselues euerie way to be coÌ„formable to the first grounds of the Primitiue Church for this cause cald themselues the Societie of Iesus Let vs then examine what were the first second third sort of plants by which our Church grew and what the Iesuits institutions be that by matching confronting the one with the other we may iudge of ther title they attribute to themselues this partiall and arrogant name of the Societie of Iesus aboue all other Christians When our Sauiour was to ascend vp into heauen he commaunded all his Apostles to haue a care of his flocke This charge was three times giuen in particuler to Saint Peter as to the rocke vpon which he had before promised to build his Church After that hauing cast the fiery flames of his holy spirit vpon them their whole intent and purpose was to sow the seeds of his gospell ouer all the world Their ordinarie seat was at Ierusalem from whence they sent foorth at the beginning heere one and there another of their company into diuers parts of the East which after their trauell came backe againe to giue vp an account of their labours in a course held by them And although Saint Iames were by common suffrages chosen saith Iustus particularly to be gouernour of the Church of Ierusalem yet had Saint Peter superintendance and generall primacie among the Apostles which was not taken from him And in the whole historie of their acts written by Saint Luke the principall miracles were done by him and the generall rule of this holy company was put into his hands Among them were many persons deuoted to religion some cald Bishops some Priests of the Greeke word that signifies Elders This we learne of Saint Luke chap. 15. 16. of the Acts and in the 20. following Saint Paule who taking his leaue of the Ephesians in the end of the Oration made to them cals them Bishops whom he named Priests in the beginning T is true that this gouernment continued not long among them in so much that as well for the good of the Pastors of the Church as for the flockes the seuerall charges of seuerall prouinces were giuen to such men as were most fit they were called Bishops and to men of meaner gifts were committed Townes Villages Parishes These the Church cald Priests who exercised their ministerie by the Bishops authority they were in time cald Curates you may see a verie faire picture of all this antiquitie drawen by venerable Beda Sicut duodecem Apostolos formam EpiscoporuÌ„ praemonstrare nemo est qui dubitet Bede in 10. ca. Lâ—c. sic hos septuaginta Discipulos figuram presbyterorum id est secundi ordinis sacerdotes gessisse sciendum est Tametsi primis Ecclesiae teÌ„poribus vt Apostolica scriptura testis est vtrique Presbyteri vtrique vocabantur Episcopi Quorum vnum sapientiae maturitatem alterum industriam curae pastoralis significat As no man doubts but that the twelue Apostles represented the state of Bishops so must you vnderstand that the 70. Disciples were a figure of the Elders that is of Priests in the second place although as the holy Scripture testifies both sorts of Priests the first second were in the Churches infancie cald Bishops yet the one of them signifies soundnes of iudgement the other pastorall trauell in his Cure I haue quoted the words expresly to bewray the ignorance of a new Iesuit which affirmes Fon. ca. 27. that Bishops and Priests were at the first both equall herein renuing the heresy of Aerius Our Church general Fuseb lib. 3. Eccle. Hist ca. 1. 4. rested fifteene or fixteene yeeres in Hierusalem which was the common resort of all their missions And after the Apostles chose diuers prouinces to themselues and bestowed the others vpon Bishops among others the prouincè of Aegypt was allotted to Saint Marke Saint Peters scholler his Sea was establisht in Alexandria the eight and fortith yeere after the natiuity of our Sauiour that is about fourteene yeers after his ascention Lo here the first plant of our Church wherein you may gather agreeably to the course of times the primacie and authoritie of the holy Sea of Rome the Patriarches of Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Hierusalem the Archbishopricks Bishopricks the particular Rectories and Curates of Townes Burroughs Villages The Church continued long in this state but afterward the extraordinarie persecutions of some Emperours draue them to flye into the Deserts to saue themselues from those cruelties where beyond all expectation of the common people they deuoted themselues by vow to a solitarie life Their Patrons were two great Prophets Plias in the old Testament S. Iohn the Baptist in the beginning of the
red haire Regent in the Colledge of Trers who also assured him that hee had conferd touching that enterprise with three of his companions who tooke it wholy to be from God assuring him that if he died in that quarrell he should be enroled and registred in the Kalender of the Martirs And the second confessed that the Iesuits of Doway hauing promised him to procure a Prebend for one of his chyldren the Prouinciall gaue him his blessing before he went about it said vnto him Friend goe thy wayes in peace for thou goest as an Angell vnder Gods safegard and protection And vpon this confession he was put to death in the Towne of Leyden by solemne sentence giuen the twentie-two of Iune in the yeere 1598. Neither am I ignorant of this that the Iesuits will say that they gaue that councell to kill two Princes who had armed theÌ„selues against their King But I tell them that then the King himselfe must put them to death be they neuer so many because they were the first enterprisers and attempters of our last troubles in Fraunce as well against the King that dead is as against the King that presently raigneth But their murthers haue a further reach then that For minding to stirre vp Robert Bruse a Scottish Gentleman eâ—â—her himselfe to kill or to cause to bee killed by some other my Lord Iohn Metellinus Chauncellour to the King of Scots euen of hatred towards him because hee was the Kings very faithfull subiect they caused the said Bruse because hee would not condiscend yeelde vnto them to be summoned and sore troubled at Bruxelles And were they not pertakers with the Iacobin in the assault and murther that was committed against the last French King And haue they not at sundry times and by sundry meanes attempted to take away the 〈◊〉 of the Lady Elizabeth Queene of England And to be short haue they not doone the like against ouâ— King both by the meanes of Peter Barrier and Iohn Caâ—â—ill froÌ„ which God hath miraculously preserued him To euerie of which particularities I will allow his proper discourse and begin the storie of their assaults and murthers that should haue been committed by the Scottish Gentleman CHAP. 2. ¶ Touching an extraordinarie processe and course that was held in the Low-countries against Robert Bruse Gentleman of Scotland vpon the accusation and information of Father William Chrichton Iesuit because he would me cause the Chauncellour of Scotland to be murthered MEn ordinarily giue out and grant extraordinarie processe against such as murther or consent to murther but to procure it or make it against one that would not consent thereto this is the first of that qualitie that euer was heard of And this is the very argument of this present chapter A little after the death of Mary Queene of Scots the late King of Spaine coÌ„maunded the Duke of Parma who was then Gouernour for him in the Low-countries to send Robert Bruse a Gentleman of Scotland to the Scottish King with Letters in the which he promised him men money enough to reuenge him selfe for the death of the Queene his Mother vnto who he protested that hee bare alwaies a singuler affection because she had vowed and so declared herselfe to the last gaspe of her life to be of our Catholique Religion which affection hee would continue to the King her sinne by successiue right but yet so as hee should promise to become the inheritour of the vertues and religion of that good and worthy Princesse My purpose is not largely and by peece-meale as me say to meat and declare howe this matter proceeded though I haue good and faithfull Intelligences of it This onely I will tell you that the said Gentleman had at the same time charge of certaine great sums of money for the fraight of threescore shipps to the end that they might first serue for transporting of victualls and munitions into the Low-countries and afterwards for men of war which the Spanyard resolued to send into England hoping that the Queene of England should be assaulted on both sides A short time after Bruses arriuall in Scotland he hauing beene all his young dayes brought vp and nourished with the Iesuits there came thether Father William Crichton a Scottish man who some-time had berne Rector of the Colledge of the Iesuits at Lyons And he was in the company of the Bishop of Dumblaine who was sent by Pope Sixtus the 5. to the King of Scotland to make him offer of a marriage with the Infant of Spaine so that hee would become a Catholique and ioyne with them against the English My Lord Iohn Metellenus set himselfe against thys negotiation and for sundry good and weighty reasons councelled his Maister not to regard it Insomuch that the Bishop returned thence without effecting any thing leauing Crichton in Scotland who ioyned himselfe with Bruse and was his companion And because hee conceiued that Metellenus alone had turned the King from accepting the offers made him he purposed to shew him a Iesuits â—â—ick indeed And that was this A catholick Lord had inuited the King his Chauncellour to a banquet Crichton solicited Bruse if it would please him to lende him soâ—â— mony to compasse thys Lord that should giue order for procuring the slaughter of the Chauncellor assuring himselfe that by 〈◊〉 of the mony he should make him doe whatsoeuer hee would Bruse flatly refused and that not onely because hee was sent to another end as hee made it appeare to him by the iustructions and memorials which hee had from he Duke of Parma but also and that much the rather by reason of the shame that would fall out vpon the execution of that enterprise especially he hauing before made shew of friendship familiarity with the Chauncellor Yea that that murther would neuer be thought good and lawfull beeing committed in the midst of a banquet and in the Kings presence against whom the iniutie should specially be performed as well by reason of the small account they made of his Maiestie as for the slaughter they should commit vpon a person whoÌ„ he entirely affected for his fidelitie and wisedome And that if he did this deede they should minister matter to the King to exasperate him against the Catholicks as murtherous infamous and trayterous persons to God and the world who to that present houre had receiued all bountifull kindnesses curtesies from their King Crichton seeing he had missed of this his match weâ—â— to moue him to another and to perswade Bruse to giue fifteene hundred crownes to three Gentlemen that did offer to kill the Chauncellor after some other lesse flauÌ„derous and offensiue manner But Bruse answered him that as in respect of the fault or sin it was all one to kill a man with his owne handes and to giue money to procure such a purpose and act to be doone And that for his part hee was a priuate person that had not anie authoritie ouer the
perticular as our aduersaries haue sought often times to prooue against vs and yet could neuer doe it And that amongst all things whatsoeuer which the Clergie the Preachers and others haue done or said wee haue said or done farre lesse then they reported of vs vnto you and that they alwaies carried a tange rather of a bad glosse then of a true text in whatsoeuer they did or said For if they now dare at high noone and in the bright Sun-shine of our peace charge truth with a thousand inuentions contrarie to truth indeed what might they haue done then when as amidst all the rumours and foggie clouds of warre lying had his full course without encounter and where truth durst not shew it selfe For the time of warre is the time of lying saith the old prouerbe If happily wee may obtaine that of your Maiestie we doe thereby obtaine the vpper hand and the second accusation will be without force for it hath nothing to vphold it from falling to the ground with the least touch For by what argument can they prooue that we in particular are enemies against your Maiestie From what spring doe they meane this hatred must proceede And from what premises doe they inferre this conclusion Is it by reason that you are a King Why our Societie honoureth Kings and this is approued by witnesses by experience and by reason Is it because that you are the eldest sonne of the Church We respect this qualitie as much yea and rather more then the first Is it by reason that you are King of Fraunce Fraunce is our natiue countrey and you as King are our Father Whom shall wee loue if we loue not our Father and mother Is it by reason that you are a worthie warrier and Captayne of Kniges and King of Captaynes This vertue maketh it selfe at all times to be beloued both of frends and foes Is it by reason that you are milde in your conuersation wise in your sentences free in your manners stedfast in your promises prompt in your actions ready to labour bold in daunger forward in combat moderate in victorie and in euery thing royall These qualities cannot ingender or bring forth hatred but on the contrary they are amiable in all but admirable in the person of a King This speech was appropriated in particular to the Kings owne royall person and a little before neere the same place is another sentence by which this honest man the Iesuit vpheld that men had wronged them in imputing vnto them to haue as it were wrastled against the state To these witnesses dread Soueraigne we adde a second argument taken from the cause Whereupon we building doe demaund what true likelihoode there is in our profession that we should bee enemies of Kings and of their States Are wee so ignorant of the law of God that we know not that it is God that giueth them that by him kings doe gouerne and by him Legifers make and giue good lawes That both the name action of a king is a right of patronage proper to the Diuine and Supreme Maiestie and that kings beare in their royaltie the image of God and in this calling God willeth vs to obey them to honour and serue them for the safetie of their persons and the State And if wee know these things hauing both preached and written them and againe doe preach and write them how may it be that we haue so little conscience as to hate that which we beleeue that God loueth to dispise that which he alloweth to destroy that which he maintaineth to haue so little iudgement as to publish one thing and doe another Are we to be reputed religious Nay rather more heathenish then the heathens themselues then Canibals and Mainelnes who though they can do nothing but shew hatred and reuenge yet doe they notwithstanding loue their Princes I praise those two sentences Iesuit be thou whatsoeuer thou art and would to God that thy soule were as cleane as thy wit is fine and as I perceiue thy words to be smoothly couched together I cannot but loue thee inseeing thee draw to the life the counterfait of those singular and admirable vertues of soule bodie which shine in our King and with all I must honour thee in seeing thee set out the picture of Obedience which the subiect oweth vnto King And sure if thy heart and my penne agree I know thou wilt condemne them all that would haue attēpted any thing against the person of this great Prince who hath not yet met with his paragon as one who in martial prowesse hath far surpassed all others Thou carriest too noble a mind were it not that thou art a Iesuit to Iudge of it any otherwise Go to now I will shew thee that all that which thy fellow hath said in his Truth defended is but a starke lie for that which toucheth the deed of Barrier when he came to murther this king whom thou so much exaltest was contriued by the expresse counsel of thy fellowes copartners Not only then when he was but simply king of Nauarre but since he was called to the Crowne of Fraunce reduced into the bosome of our Catholique Apostolique and Romane Church If againe I shew vnto thee the generall rebellion of Fraunce enterprized vnder the title of the holy League which was first begun after conducted by your holy religious persons against one Henrie the third King of Fraunce one of the most Catholique kings that euer France enioyed what iudgement wilt thou passe against thy owne party I remit it euen to thy owne conscience yea to the conscience of any good Catholique that is not a cloaked Iesuit Nay further I say that these two parties are the onely vpholders of your condemnation and vpon them grounding my opiniō I take vpon me directly to shew that to establish you again in France were great lack of iudgement experience I wil therfore lay down these two points in order and first I will begin with Barriere afterwards with Chastell then with the Vniuersall reuolt of the which you Iesuits take it amongst you were the first authors within this Realme CHAP. 6. ¶ A prodigious historie of the detestable paricide attempted against King Henry the fourth of that name the most Christian King of Fraunce and Nauarre by Peter Barriere for the raysing vp of Iesuits I Will recite vnto you faithfully this historie of Barriere and that you may beleeue mee I will speake it vpon perill of my goods of my bodie and of mine honour for I haue learned it of a friend of mine whom I esteem of as my selfe which was then present at Melun when this deed was done and who spake twice vnto Barriere in the presence of Lugoly his Iudge who saw him executed to death heard all that he maintained during the time of his tortures vntill the last breathing of his life who handled the knife of the which I will hereafter speake who since drew out the
moribus ipsamque tanquam scandalosam ad fraudes deceptiones mendacia proditiones periuria vias dantem reprobat condemnat Which is to say This holy Councell chiefly desiring as it is bound therfore assembled to prouide for the rooting out of errors heresies which now begin to spread abroad in diuers parts of the world hath lately beene enformed that some divulge opinions erronious in faith against good manners and verie scandalous tending to the subuersion of the whole State and order in States among which this assertion passeth for currant Euery Tyrant may and ought lawfully and meritoriously to be killed by any his Vassal subiect euen by ambushments or flatteries or faire allurements notwithstanding any oath passed vnto him or League made with him and without attending the sentence or commaund of any Iudge whatsoeuer Which this holy Counsel endeauouring to resist and wholly to root out decrees ordaines and iudgeth to be erronious both in matters of faith and manners and reprooues and condemnes it as a point most scandalous opening the way vnto all manner of guiles deceits lies treasons and periuries An ordinance which I respect and reuerence not only because it was enacted in that great counsel of Constance wherby the abuses of the Church and heresie were rooted vp but in that it was deriued from our Fraunce Gerson being the first and principall Solicitor against the new Diuines who then had intertained this opinion which since that time our Iesuits haue reuiued in the death of good king Heny whom they called a Tyrant had done the like to our great King now liuing if God by his holy grace had not preserued him But because the Iesuits would seem to deny their Peter Mathew as not being of their Sect what say they to father Emanuel Sa terming himselfe a Doctor of Diuinitie and of their Societie who by two artcles in his Aphorismes of confession hath maintained that it is lawfull for subiects to kill the Tyrant and to expell a misbeleeuing Prince out of his Realme as if the people could or should giue lawes vnto their King whom God hath giuen them to be their soueraigne Magistrate I am ashamed that I must prooue no subiect ought to attatch his Prince what part soeuer he doth play but hauing vndertaken to combate an heresy which Iesuits haue practized by deeds now would faine go from it in words I purpose to giue thē a fulsome gorge therof Learne therefore of me this lesson Iesuit for I owe this duty to al Christians we ought to obey our kings whatsoeuer they be I will say good or badde this is that the wise man teacheth vs in his Prouerbs S. Peter in his Epistles S. Paule vnto the Romans to Titus to Timothie the Prophet Baruch speaking of Nabuchodonozer whō God of all other Princes had made to fall into a reprobate sense the goodly example of Dauid persecuted by Saul Such Kings as God bestoweth on vs such are we to receiue without examining as thou dost whither they be Kings or Tyrants The hearts of Kings are in the hands of God they execute his iustice euen as it pleaseth him to punish vs or more or lesse whereto we are not to oppose our selues but by our humble praiers vnto him if we deale otherwise we resemble those ouerweening Giants described by ancient Poets who offring to skale the heauens there to sit cheek by iowle with Gods were in a moment tumbled down to hel by their god Iupiter Yet ought not a King abuse his power but know he is a father not to prouoke his subiects his children vpō euery sleight occasion for if he do God the father of Fathers king of Kings wil when he least thinks of it dart his vengeance against him with a most dreadful horrible arme To conclude seeing that thou Iesuit yeeldest a blind obediēce to thy superiors who are but thy adopted Lords thou owest it in greater measure a hundred-fold vnto thy King thy true lawfull naturall Lord father Therfore art thou a most dangerous yonker to propose vnto vs in thy writings this distinction of a King Tyrant not that I know not the great difference which is betweene the one the other but we are to blindfold our eyes vnder their obedience otherwise we shroud a rebellion of subiects against their Prince Rebellion which produceth much more euell then the tyrannie whereunto we were subiect CHAP. 10. ¶ A memorable act of Ignace whereupon the Iesuits haue learnt to kill or cause to be killed all such as stand not to their opinions THere remained in the confines of Spain certaine dregs of the Marranes whom king Ferdinand had chased out of that realme therfore got the title of Catholique a surname wherwith his successors haue since adornd themselues One of these rascals mounted on a Mule accoasted Ignace on the high way somwhat after he had changed his former life haning told one another to what place they were bent they entred into sundry discourses at length fell into talke of the blessed Virgin Mary whom the Moore acknowledged for a true Virgin before her Conception but not after grounding his opiniō on natural reasons the which haue no affinity with our faith Ignace vrged the contrary with good deuotion that she was a Virgin both before at and after her deliuery searched euery corner of his braine to make it good But being then a simple nouice if you wil needs know it but an a. b. c. man in points of religiō it was not for him to manage so high misteries so that supplying the want of arguments wherof he had none left with a iust choller the Moore who laughed at him in his mind spurring his Mule and giuing him a ful carriere left Ignace all alone who chafing that he was not able to get the victory at the blunt of the tongue went yet to win it at the sharp with the sword and so resolued to pursue him amaine presently to kil him Notwithstanding like a man of a good conscience he found himselfe extreamly perplexed For on the one side it vexed him to see a monster fraught with impiety and blasphemie goe vpon the ground on the other he weighed his owne feare of offending the Virgin in sted of defending her In this cōtention suspended between yea and no at length hee determined to take his Mules aduise Hee sawe the fellowe passe into a crosse way and knew whether it led wherefore in admirable wisdome he resolued not to slacken the reynes of his choller but to giue his beast the bridle on condition that if of her owne instinct she followed the tract of that Infidell along the crosse-way he would dispatch him without all remission but as God would haue it she chose another path by meanes whereof Ignacius suddenly appeased himselfe supposing the matter happened to his Mule by diuine inspiration God sometimes giues aduise vnto false Prophets by their beasts as we
assembly some laboured harde to make immortall mercilesse war against the Hugonots yet demaunded an abatement of Subsidies a proposition ill sorting with the former those Subsidies hauing heen introduced of purpose to further the warres By means whereof the man of whom I speake taking first aduise of the Iesuits propounded a third course to league thēselues against the Hugonots and that such as willing lie enroled themselues vnder the League should be bound to contribute vnto the charge of this new warre These instructions receiued and published the Deputies did nominate a certaine Prince to be their head The last King knowing of what consequence this practise was and that succeeding it would make 3. parties in France his owne which was not one properly that of the League another of the Hugonots to breake this blow discreetly affirmed that he approued well this League but that be would be chiefe thereof which was to the end the League should flie no further then he was pleased to giue it wings The first stone of our ruine beeing cast in this manner the Prouosts of the Merchants and the Sheriffes of Paris returning home and loath that thys opinion of a League which they held most holy should miscarie sent theyr Commissions throughout all the Wards to to the end that such as would contribute should subscribe their names The Constables bare them vnto euerie house some hardier then the rest opposed themselues the greater number fearing worse subscribed The Commission was brought to Christopher le Tou chiefe Iustice whose memorie vvee cannot honour too much this good Lord refused not onely to subscribe but detayned the Commission it selfe and the next day in open Court detested this vnhappy innouation as an assured desolation to our state His authoritie his honestie his reasons wrought so great effect that euery one allowed and followed his aduise From thence-foorth this opinion of the League did weare away or rather vvas remitted to another season that better might befit the purposes of such as broached it Suddainly after the Parliament was ended Father Aimon Auger a Iesuit got the King to giue eare vnto him through his plausible hypocrisies And after him Father Claudius Matthew of Lorraine both the which had so great part in his good fauour that as Montaignes testifieth hee some-times caused them to ride along with him in his owne Coach At length this good King founde that these coozeners were desirous to incroach vppon the managing of State-matters about him Auger especially whom for that cause hee gaue order to his Embassadour at Rome to get him remooued out of Fraunce by Letters of obedience from his Generall The King departing from the Parliament pacified his subiects by an Edict of the yeere 1577. the which hee sayd was vvholly his owne and yet had by his wisedome cleane dashed the reformed Religion without bloodshed if the Iesuits would haue vouchsafed him the leisure to finish what he had begun Wageing in the midst of peace a gentle warre against the Hugonots gentle but more forcible in great mens oppinions then any weapons could haue made it For although that the Edict of 77. gaue some libertie vnto them yet the king neither called them to places of iudgement nor vnto offices in his Exchequer nor to the gouernments of Prouinces and Townes Hee had moreouer deuised the order of the holie Ghost reserued wholly for Catholicke Princes and Lords as also that of the Hieronimitans of our Lady of Vincennes where none were to appeare but Apostolicall Romane Catholiques and with whom laying aside his most high authoritie he fraternized in all kind of deuotion Nowe the presence of these causing the others absence belieue it was no small meanes to force them into the right way For there is nothing which the French Nobilitie affect so much as to be neere theyr King nor any thing that afflicts the common people more then to be kept from Offices this is a disease of minde that spoyles the Frenchman As soone as a Lawyer or Marchant haue by theyr endeuours stuffed theyr Closets and Storehouses with siluer the thing they chiefely ayme at is to bestowe it on places of Iudgement or roomes in the Exchequer for theyr Children so that the newe Religion beganne alreadie to dissolute and it grieued not the Auncients thereof vvho for shame and to auoyde the imputation of lightnes stucke vnto it to suffer their chyldren to be instructed in our Schooles and consequently to learne there the principles of our Religion All matters in this sort proceeded from ill to well from well to better the Countriman plyed harde his plough the Artificer his trade the Merchant his traffique the Lawyer his practise the Cittizen enioyed his reuenew the Magistrate his stipend the Catholick his owne religion throughout all Fraunce without impeachment The remainder of those Hugonots that liued being sequestred into a backe corner of the kingdome when our Iesuits seeing themselues remoued frō theyr Princes fauour beganne to lay this snare to intrap him Euen as the Societie of Iesuits is composed of all sorts of people some for the pen others for practise so had they amongst them one Father Henry Sammier of Luxembourge a man disposed for all assayes and resolued vnto any hazard This fellow was sent by them in the yeere 1581 towards diuers Catholicke Princes to sounde the Foorde And to say truly they could not haue chosen one more fit for he disguised himselfe into as many formes as obiects one while attired like a soldiour another while like a Priest by and by like a country Swaine Dice cardes and women were as ordinarie with him as his prefixed houres of prayer saying he did not thinke he sinned in this because it was done to the furtherance of a good worke to the exaltation of Gods glorie and that hee might not be discouered changing his name together with his habite according to the Countries wherein he purposed to negotiate He parted from Lorraine and thence went into Germany Italie and Spaine The summe of his instructions were that foreseeing the eminent danger of our Catholick religion the seeming conniuence which the King gaue to it and secret fauour hee yeelded on the other side to the Hugonots whereof the Duke his brother had made himselfe an open Protector in the Lowe-Countries their holie societie had resolued to vndertake this quarrell vnder the leading of a great Prince making sure account of Gods assistance seeing that it was directed to the aduauncement of his holy Name and good of his Church Thus Sammier got intelligence from each part and tooke assurance on all hands but presently to manifest their proiects the season fitted not because the Duke was aliue and the two brothers forces once vnited were sufficient to swallow all such as had made head against them And this was but the preamble vnto our Troubles In the yeere 83. he died That let remoued the Iesuits imbarqued in their quarrell such Lords as they thought good and
in die Coenae Domini solita est legi ac eis pro commissis poenitentiam salutarem iniungendis That is we giue leaue and permission to as many of you as are Priests to heare the Confessions of the faithfull of the one and the other Sexe from what part soeuer they come vnto you and them being diligently heard to absolue from all and singuler their sinnes crimes excesses and offences how great and enormous soeuer yea euen those that are reserued to the Sea Apostolique and all circumstances thence arising by sentence censure or paines Ecclesiasticall those excepted which are contayned in the Bull accustomed to be read on Maundie Thursday and to ordayne to the Penitents for the faults by them committed wholesome and profitable penaunce As the priuiledges which they perswade themselues haue beene graunted them for the Catechising and instructing of youth haue peruerted all the auncient order of famous Vniuersities so this large and extraordinarie licence permitted them in matter of Confession hath beene the cause that the greatest part of the people haue in great and haynous sinnes forsaken the auncient custome of resorting to the Penitentiaries of Cathedrall Churches and had recourse to the Iesuits whom wee see by vertue of this Bull to be all of them authorized for Penitentiaries And God knowes how farre these holy and blessed Fathers haue abused it The first breaking forth of our troubles was in the yeere 1585. at which time all that resorted to them to be confessed if they affirmed themselues to be good subiects and loyall seruitors to the King for they were questioned vpon that article they were sent backe by the Iesuits without receiuing absolution Which beeing obiected against them by Arnauldus marke I beseech you the cold aunswere which they make in their defence against his accusations For in the 17. article it is obiected saith Arnauldus that the said Defendants haue at diuers sundry times denied absolutiō to them that stoode for the late King from the yeere 1585. The said Defendaunts aunswere that the article is vntrue although themselues know that it hath beene often by sundrie persons auouched yea and deposed against them in the presence of the late King in his closet and what witnesse could there be produced against them in this case saue only those who had been by them denied absolutiō There is no smoak without some fire Read their annuall letters of the yeere 1589. when griefe rage and furie of the last troubles beganne you shall find that the number of their confessions was infinitely encreased and specially in the Colledge of the Iesuits at Paris Totius vitae confessiones auditae trecentae Wee haue heare 300. totall confessions wrote the Substitutes of the Colledge to their Generall Aquauiua If you aske me whence this new deuotion of the common people to them proceeded I wil tell you Our Kings represent the true image of God Against whom this yeere there hapned three straunge and vnusuall accidents first the rebellion against the late king which they coloured with the title and pretext of tyrannie for the fairest title they could affoord him was the name of Tyrant secondly the parricide committed vppon his person by a Munke and lastly the continuance of that rebellion against the King that now is for his religion Be you assured that all such as did not hold their consciences at as low a rate as many of the Cleargie doe found themselues much disquieted vpon these accidents Which was the cause that during these troubles they went to be confest by these vpstart Penitentiaries some were to be resolued by them whether it were sin not to yeeld obedience to their King others to be absolued for the same But this was to commit the Lambe to the Woolues custodie for their confessions were as many instructions or rather destructions to teach Rebellion refusing to absolue them which eyther were not in their consciences fully confirmed in their reuolt from the two Kings or had any inclination to acknowledge them for their Soueraignes And which is full of horrour and detestation their ordinarie course was before they would absolue them to make them sweare by the holy Gospell contayned in their breuiaries neuer to take these two Kings for their lawfull Soueraignes That which I speake I haue by good information from many that were fayne to passe through that strait and I know one amongst the rest more neere mee then the rest who rather then hee would giue credit to their doctrine departed from his Confessour without receiuing absolution This teacheth to the whole bodie of the Realme But as concerning priuate Families the Iesuits make a double vse of ministring Confession One is to take information from the Penitent not onely of his owne sinnes but of their demeanour likewise that dwell with him or with whom hee dwelleth nay of the whole neighbourhoode as if it were a sinne in him not to discouer an other mans sinne in confession eyther if hee know it or suppose that he knowes it Which is as much in effect as to make so many spies and carrie-tales in a Towne as there be Iesuits Confessors The second vse which toucheth them in a neerer respect is that in sucking by the eare the soule of a timorous conscience they sucke or rather swallow there-withall his goods and possessions by promising abundance of Spirituall goods in the world to come after their death to those that shall in their life time be charitable to them out of their temporall goods A course whereby they haue carried away an infinite masse of wealth if you beleeue those that haue taken vppon them to write their Legend for I know not by what other name to in title the liues of these holy Fathers One point more I will adde whereof I desire to be resolued by our auucient Doctors in Diuinitie they haue a rule in practise that men are bound to accuse themselues to their Confessour and not themselues onely but all their confederates likewise and as for the Magistrate the malefactor being condemned to die after he hath once made confession of his sinnes to his ghostly father is not tyed to reueale it to his Iudge nay it is lawfull for him to stand in stiffe deniall thereof at the time of his execution as being cleere before God although he persist in a lie after he hath once discharged the depth of his conscience to his Confessor A thing that breedeth much scruple in the minde of a Iudge who otherwise is greatly quieted in conscience when an offender adiudged to die howsoeuer he haue before time stood in deniall of the fact yet at the time of his death confesseth the truth CHAP. 13. ¶ Of a generall assemblie of the Iesuits holden in Rome in the yeere 1593. wherein they are prohibited to entermedle in matters of state I Haue formarly in this discourse charged the Iesuits to haue beene both the first sparkes and the chiefest flames of our last troubles for proofe whereof
death of the two Brothers at Blois that certaine young Diuines infected with the poyson of the Iesuits loosed the reines to subiects against their King in the yeere 1589. notwithstanding themselues confessed at that time that their aduise in this poynt ought not to take place without the formall confirmation of the Sea Apostolicke Neuerthelesse Commolet the Iesuit and his adherents the day following sounded the Trumpet of warre in their Pulpets against the King deceased affirming withall that it was confirmed by Decree Whereupon insued those outragious disorders which wee haue seene in Fraunce since that time To take Armes against his Soueraigne was heresie but much greater heresie was it not to tarrie for the allowance or disallowance of the holy Sea So that this was to offer violence to two Soueraigne powers at once the spirituall power of the Apostolicall Sea and the temporall power of the King And Pope Sixtus if hee had pleased might with one stroake of his pen haue extinguisht all our troubles by excōmunicating all those who without his knowledge authoritie had presumed to arme themselues against their King whom hee knewe to be a most deuout Catholique But he kept himselfe well enough from that for in so dooing he should haue excōmunicated them who at that time had all the strength on their part in fauour of a poore King against whom heauen earth seemed to conspire Contrariwise he conuented him to Rome to answer that he had done against al the lawes customs liberties and priuiledges of our Countrie of Fraunce Our King now raigning was at his first comming to the Crowne of a contrarie religion to ours and it pleased the Pope at the first to censure him for such a one but when hee once came to knowe his valour and that his enemies did but feede his holinesse with false bruits of imaginarie victories he began to shrink his head out of the coller and would neuer after haue any hand in the matter And from that day forward vsed the King vnderhand with all the curtesie that coulde be desired Neither doe you thinke for all this that Sixtus stood the worse affected to the King that dead is or the better to him that now raigneth but he thereby out of his vvisedom fauoured the more his owne proceedings Albeit certaine foolish Schollers charged him a little before his death that hee was inclined to the Kings partie And vppon this challenge some rash spirits haue not spared to say that he was poysoned whereunto I will giue no credite although it were true The like may be said of our Iesuits who ayme at nothing else but the aduauncement of theyr Common-wealth which they entitle The Societie of Iesus which as it hath take his originall and increase from nothing but from the Troubles so doe they shoote at nothing but to disturbe those countries wherein they remaine in that disturbance they euer encline to those which are able to maister the weaker part as I will make good by an ocular demonstration After they had set fire to the foure corners and midst of Fraunce and that the late King was brought to a narrow straight they deuoted themselues to him aboue the rest that was the Captaine generall of the League because all things fell happilie on his side And as long as Fortune smiled vppon him all theyr Sermons vvere of nothing but his greatnes and merrits But when they once perceiued that hee beganne to decline and that he was forced to call to the King of Spayne for assistance then beganne they likewise to turne theyr face from the Duke wedding themselues to the partie of a King whom they esteemed to be exceeding mightie There is at this day a new King in Spayne what his good or ill fortune shall be is knowne to GOD onelie For my part it shall neuer grieue me to see as many Crownes on his heade as were on his Fathers the late deceased King Imagine that for a new opinion of war vvhich is easily harboured in the braine of a young Prince he should breake with vs and that our affaires should haue prosperous successe in his dominions bee assured you should see our Iesuits altogether French albeit they were Spaniards by birth These are true birds of pray that houer in the ayre It was wel befitting the person of a soueraigne prince to play that part which Sixtus did but for a subiect it is an ill president a matter of dangerous consequence This is to prooue that which way soeuer you turne your thoughts you shall finde no reason why the Iesuits should be nourisht within a kingdome who are as many I will not say espialls but enemies to theyr Prince if he fortune to prooue the weaker And for a neede if there should happen newe factions in Rome and that the Pope were put to the worst hee himselfe should feele the effects thereof notwithstanding the particuler homage which they sweare vnto him at euerie change of the Sea Scarcely had the Aduocate finisht this discourse but the Gentleman replyed Take heede you be not deceiued and that this your position doe not imply a contradiction For if the Iesuit bee naturallie addicted to him that is most beneficiall to him as you hold then must it of consequence followe that hee is naturally Spanish and not French VVill you know the cause hee is sure that what trouble soeuer hee may breede in the consciences of these and these priuate men by his nevve kinde of confessions yet shall hee neuer be able to get such footing in the whole Realme of Fraunce as hee hath alreadie in Spayne wherein the supreame Magistrate is fallen from one extremitie into another For the Spaniards beeing of olde accused to be halfe Pagans as holding a mungrell Religion and not wholie Christian doe novve in these dayes to purge themselues of that calumnious accusation for so I will suppose it to be they speciallie and aboue all others embrace the Iesuits esteeming them vassales to the Papacie without all clause or exception And vpon thys opinion they graunt them in theyr Citties an infinite number of prerogatiues aboue the common people yea euen aboue the Magistrates themselues whom they rule at their pleasures And albeit antiquitie haue giuen vs in Fraunce the title of the eldest sonnes to the Catholique Apostolick Romane Church yet is it with certaine qualifications vvhich the Iesuits shall neuer be able to remoue out of our heads what soeuer shewe of continuation they bring to the contrarie And that is the cause why they supposing their commoditie vvould be greater if the Spaniard were Maister of all Fraunce then at this present it is will euermore leane to that side rather then to ours albeit they were naturally French These are pollititians which cleaue rather to the certaine then to the vncertaine Thinke not your selfe interrupted by thys short Parenthesis but if you please fall againe into your discourse I will doe soe aunswered the Aduocate and I vvill tell
after they haue raised tumults in all Countries that theyr designements sort to effect CHAP. 17. ¶ That the Pope hath not power to translate the Crowne of Fraunce from one to another against the dangerous position of the Iesuits and some other discourse tending to the same effect THe Iesuits not content to haue offered violence to our King in time of the troubles doe at this day in the time of peace by theyr pennes offer violence to the Royaltie it selfe Hee that maintaines in Rome that the Pope may transfer Empires and Kingdomes from hand to hand at his pleasure deserueth a Cardinals hat as Father Robert Bellarmine the Iesuite he that maintaines the same position in Fraunce is worthie of a hat of that colour but not of that kinde as the Cardinals Kings die whē it pleaseth God to call them the Roialtie neuer dies Which is the cause that the Parliament Court of Paris when they accompanie the funerall obsequies of our Kinges are not in mourning weedes but in Scarlet the true marke and ensigne of the neuer dying maiestie of the Crowne or Royaltie One of the chiefe flowers of our Crowne is that our Kings cannot incurre the censures of the Church of Rome nor their realme be interdicted nor consequently transposed It is a law not made but bred with vs which we haue not learned receiued or by long instruction imprinted but a law which is drawne inspired and deriued into vs out of the very breasts of our Mother Fraunce wherein we are not nurtured but nursed that if any thunderbolts fortuned to be sent from Rome against the maiestie of our Kings so as in consequence thereof the realme might fall vnder the sentence of Interditement we are not bound to yeeld obedience thereunto Neither yet for all this did our kings euer loose the title of Most Christian nor wee of the Eldest sonnes of the Church The Iesuit hath beene condemned by a decree of the Court he drawes his chaine after him still yet will hee not cease to be a Iesuit that is a Seminarie of diuisions factions and dissentions within our country Let vs then heare what he saith who vnder the name of Montaignes hath publisht the booke of the Truth as hee intitles it but of the forged and lying Truth After hee had discoursed that the Temporall state onely appertained to the King and the Spirituall to the holy Father who claimed no interest in their souerainties hee affirmes that if the king happē at any time to transgresse God hath put a rod into the Popes hand to chastise him and depriue him of his kingdome And this is for the behoofe Mont. cap. 15. of the Truth defended for the good of Princes saith he who most commonlie are reclaimed and brought to their duties rather for feare of their Temporall estate which they euer-more hold deer though otherwise ill giuen then of their Spirituall which they set not by vnlesse their conscience be the better which is not generall to all of them But the Pope is no God no more was Samuell who executed that sentence against Saul So as God had annointed Saul King by the Prophet so doth he send the sentence of his deposition by him and by him translate the kingdome annoint Dauid king In the time of Osias king of Iuda the high priest no more a GOD then Samuell gaue the kingdome from the father to the sonne he being strooken with leprosie for his presumption This transposition of the Crowne was doone by the appointment of the high Priest according as by the Law was ordained and consequently the deposition of the Father Iehoiada was no God but a priest and Gods Lieutenaunt when after he had caused Athalia the Queene to be put to death for her tyrannous gouernment hee put the scepter into the handes of Ioas a prince of the blood and lawfull successor to the Crowne All those were but Gods ministers to execute his decrees as the Pope likewise is And seeing God hath infinite meanes to translate a kingdome by the force and weapons of Pagans as of Moores Turks and other strange Nations making the Assyrians conquerours ouer the Greekes the Greekes ouer the Assyrians both of the Iewes and the Romans of both what milder course could he haue ordained among Christians what way more reasonable or more secure then by the mediation and authoritie of the head of the Church and the common Father of all Christians who beeing specially assisted by God and by men both learned and religious will in likelihood doe nothing preiudiciall to the right of the lawfull successors and will proceede without passion and withall moderation and mildnes in a case of that importance hauing an eye euermore to the honour of God and vnto the publique and priuate good In conclusion by this learned position which our pernitious Iesuit maintaines the Pope hath authoritie to transferre kingdoms frō one hand to another when he seeth cause so to doe and dooing it hee is subiect to no mans controule inasmuch as if God himselfe may doe it then is it lawfull for his Vicar to doe the like the Pope hauing no lesse preheminence ouer Kings in these times of Christianity then the Prophets had in the time of Moses law This fond opinion of thine brings mee to a meruailous straite forcing mee to combate against the authoritie of the holie Sea First if you will argue this position morallie where shall you finde that a King constituting his Lieuetenants generall in Prouinces giueth them in all poynts as ample authoritie as himselfe hath ouer his subiects And to say that God hath transferred his omnipotent power into any man whatsoeuer is a poynt of blaspemie against the Maiestie of GOD. Besides tell mee Sophister where finde you that you ought to beg such examples out of the old Testament to transplant them into the new But with such illusions doe you and your associats surprise the consciences of the weake ignorant multitude For if that reason of yours were of any value or consequence we should by the same bring Circumcision into vse againe at this day because it was vsed vnder the Law of Moses And by the same pretext it shall be lawfull for the subiect to lay violent handes vppon his Soueraigne Iudges 3. because Ehud murthered Eglon King of Moab vnpunished Seeing you terme your selfe a Iesuit let vs follow the footesteps of Iesus Christ for to this marke ought all our cogitations to leuell whereunto restraining our discourse I will make it appeare that I am a true Cathotholicke liegeman to the Pope and thou a true Catholique Impostor VVee consider the power of our Sauiour Christ in two different times one was vvhen for our Redemption hee descended from heauen into the earth the other vvhen after his death and passion hee ascended from earth into heauen The first was the time of his humilitie in respect whereof hee professed that his comming was not to be an vmpire of their
cannot at once be a King and a Prelate and that his predecessors ordered the Ecclesiastical State which belongeth vnto him and not the temporall which pertaines only to kings Let him not inioyne vs to receiue a King who remayning in a countrie so farre distant cannot ayde vs against the sodain oftē incursions of the Infidels Neither let him commaund vs who of our Franchise and Freedome beare the name of Franks to serue him whom we list not to serue which yoake his predecessors neuer imposed vppon our Auncestors And we finde it written in holy Scripture that we ought to fight to the death for our libertie and inheritance And a little after Propterea si Dominus Apostolicus vult pacem quaerere sic quaer at vt rixam non moueat That is Therefore if our Apostolicall Lord seeke after peace let him so seeke it as he be not an occasiō of war And in conclusiō Hingmare shuts vp his letter with these words Et vt mihi experimento videtur propter meam interdictionem vel propter lingue humanae gladium nisialiud obstiterit Rex noster vel eius Regni primores non dimittent vt quod coeperunt quaniū potuerint nō exequantur That is And as I find by proofe our King or the Peeres of his Realme are not minded eyther for my excommunication or the sword of mans tongue vnlesse some other matter come to stop them to desist from prosecuting what they haue begun By which letters you may vnderstand that the Pope tooke vpon him not onely to censure King Charles the Bald for his disobedience in so iust and rightfull a cause but to make himselfe Iudge also of Empyres and Kingdomes wherevnto neither the king nor his subiects would euer assent auouching that the Pope could not confound Religion with State and that they were resolued to withstand him whatsoeuer it cost them as being a new law which he meant to obtrude vpon the land to the preiudice of our kings It may be some honest meaning man will say How doth this hang together You allow the Pope all primacie and superioritie in spirituall causes and yet limite his general power in your owne king though he should runne astray out of the right way For in respect of temporall matters I grant it but as for this high point of spirituall authority all things make against that position Whom I aunswere thus We acknowledge in Fraunce that the Pope is supreame head of the Catholique and Vniuersall Church yet is it not therefore absurd or inconsequent that our Kings should be exempted from his censures We see that all auncient Monasteries are naturallie subiect to the iurisdiction of theyr Diocesans yet are many of them by speciall priuiledge exempted from the same Our auncient Kings haue beene the first protectors of the holy Sea as well against the tyrannie of the Emperous of Constantinople as against the incursions and inuasions of the Lombards which were dailie at the gates of Rome One king alone Pepin conquered the whole state or Herarchie of Rauenna which he freely gaue to the Pope deliuering their Cittie from the long siege which Astolpho king of the Lombards had held about it And Charlemaine the sonne of Pepin chased out of Lombardie Didier their king and his whole race making himselfe Maister as well of the Cittie of Rome as of all Italie where he was afterwards acknowledged and crowned Emperour of the West by Pope Leo whom he restored fully and wholly to his auncient libertie against the insolencie of the people of Rome who repined and mutined against him And at that time was it concluded that the Popes elect might not enter vpon the exercise or administration of theyr functions vntill they were first confirmed by him or his successors I am certainly perswaded that hee and his posterity were at that time freed and exempted from all censures and excommunications of the holy Sea And albeit we haue not the expresse Constitution to shew yet may it be extracted out of the Ordinaunces of the said Emperour recorded by Iuon Bishop of Chartres Si quos culpatores Regia potestas Epist 123. 195. aut in gratiam benignitatis receperit aut mensae suae participes fecerit hos sacerdotum populorum conuentus suscipere Ecclesiastica communione debebit vt quod principalis pietas recepit nec à Sacerdotibus Dei extraneum habeatur If the king shall receiue any sinner into the fauour of his clemencie or make him partaker of his owne table the whole companie of the Priests and people shall likewise receiue him into the cōmunion of the Church that that which the princes pietie hath admitted be not by the priests held as cast off or reiected If then the table or the fauour of our Kings did acquite and absolute the excommunicated person from the Ecclesiasticall censures wee may well say that our kings themselues were exempt from all excommunications Our kings had right to confirme the Popes after their elections a right which the Popes alledge to haue beene by them remitted then why should we be more enuied then they if the auncient Prelacie of Rome haue priuiledged our kings from all excommunications and censures whatsoeuer Sure I am that Pope Gregorie the fourth going about to infringe that prerogatiue to gratifie the sonnes of king Lewes the Milde the sonne of Charlemaine the good Bishops and Prelats of Fraunce sent him vvord that if he came in person to excommunicate their king himselfe should returne excommunicated to Rome A peremtorie speech I must confesse but it wrought so as the Pope to couer his packing pretended hee came into Fraunce for no other intent but to mediate a peace betweene the Father and the sonnes as indeede he did and had he stood vppon other termes hee would haue gone out of Fraunce greatly displeased So much doe wee embrace this priuiledge of our kings as wee dare affirme that it had his beginning eyther with the Crowne it selfe at what time Clouis became a Christian or at least in the second line within a while after our kings had taken in hand the defence protection of the Church of Rome for so doe we find it to haue beene obserued successiuely in Charlemaine Lewes the Milde his sonne and Charles the Balde his grand-child And since in the third line when our kings seemed some what to forget the right way and that it was requisite to extend the authoritie of the Church towards them the Pope or his Legates were fayne to ioyne the Clergie of Fraunce with them In briefe as long as all thinges were quiet and peaceable betweene the King and his subiects the censures of Rome were neuer receiued against our Kings In our auncient Records wee finde a Bull bearing date from Pope Boniface the eyght the tenor whereof is Vt nec Rex Franciae nec Regina nec liberi eorum ex communicart possint That neyther the King nor the Queene of Fraunce nor theyr
chyldren can be excommunicated It fell so out after that time that the same Pope falling at variance with king Phillip the fayre hee needes would excommunicate him but there was neuer excommunication cost Pope so deere as that did him For his Nuncios weare committed prisoners his Buls burnt and Boniface himselfe being taken by Naugeret Chauncelor of Fraunce presently after died for very sorrow despight that he had receiued so foule a disgrace at the hands of his enemie Wherein Phillip did nothing but by the counsell and consent of the whole Cleargie of Fraunce So farre was this excommunication from falling to the preiudice of the King and his Realme that contrariwise it turned to his shame and confusion by whom it was decreed Benet the 13. otherwise called Peter de Luna keeping his sea or residence in Auignon hauing interdited Charles the sixt and his realme the king sitting in the throne of iustice in the Parliament or high Court of Paris the 21. of May 1408. gaue sentence that the Bull should be rent in peeces and that Gonsalue Conseloux the bearers thereof should be set vpon a pillorie and publiquely notified and traduced in the pulpit the meaning whereof was that the people should be taught and informed that the king was not liable to any excōmunication Which decree was accordingly put in execution in the month of August with the greatest scorne that could be deuised the two Nuncios or Legats hauing this inscription vppon their Miters These men are disloyall to the Church and to the King Iulius the second offered the like to king Lewes the twelfth his censures were censured by a Conuocation of the Clergie of Fraunce holden at Tours 1510. Not to goe too farre from our owne times the like censures came from Rome in time of our last troubles in the yeere 1591. by the sentence aswel of the Court of Parliament of Paris then remoued to Tours as of the soueraine or high chamber holden at Chalons in Champagnie it was ordered that the Bulls should be burnt by the publique Executioner as accordingly they were A Maxime so grounded in the realme of France that in the treatie of peace which was made in the towne of Arras in the yeere 1481 between king Lewes the 11 and Maximilian the Arch-duke of Austria and the States of the Low-countries the Deputies for Maximilian and the States treated with ours that the King should promise to keepe obserue this agreement and to that end he and his sonnes should submit themselues to all Ecclesiasticall censures Notwithstanding the priuiledge of the Kings of Fraunce Whereby neither hee nor his Realme might bee compeld by Ecclesiasticall censures Which treatie was afterward confirmed by king Lewes the same yeere at Plessi neere vnto Tours the confirmation carrieth these words Wee haue submitted vs and our said sonne and our Realme to all Ecclesiasticall censures for the keeping and obseruing of the saide treatie notwithstanding the priuiledge which we haue that wee nor our successours nor our Realme ought not to be subiect nor liable to censures VVhich thing hath beene since that time confirmed by a decree made in the yeere 1549. Charles Cardinall of Lorraine Archbishop of Reims to make his memory immortall by a most honourable action founded an Vniuersitie in Reims with manie great priuiledges hauing first obtained leaue and permission of the King Henry the second and next of the Pope Paule the third for so much as concerned the spiritualties who graunted forth his Buls verie large and ample contayning amongst other clauses this one Nos igitur piū laudabile Henrici Regis Caroli Cardinalis desiderium plurimū commendantes praefatum Henricum Regē à quibusuis excommunicationis suspensionis interdicti alijsque Ecclesiasticis sententijs censuris poenis à iure vel ab homine quauis occasione vel causa latis si quibus quomodolibet innodatus existat ad effectum presentium duntaxat consequendum harum serie absoluentes What greater fauour or courtesie could we expect from Rome then that our king without any suit of his should be absolued from all censures which he could incurre de iure or de facto Neuerthelesse this courtesie was by the Court of Parliament at Paris as frankly refused as it was offered Because in the verification aswell of the Buls as of the kings Letters-patents it was enacted by a decree in Court giuē the last saue one of Ianuary 1549 with this prouiso that notwithstanding this pretended absolution it be not inferd that the king hath beene or hereafter may be any way or for any cause whatsoeuer subiect to the excommunications or censures Apostolicall or thereby preiudice the rights priuiledges or preheminences of the king and of his Realme As also the sentence giuen against Iohn Chastell the 29. of December 1594. contained this peculiar clause that amongest other things he was condemned for hauing maintayned that our king Henry the fourth raigning at this present was not in the Church vntill he had the approbation of the Pope whereof he did repent and aske forgiuenes of God the king and the Court. This that I haue deliuered in this present discourse doth not proceed of any sinister affection which I beare to the holy Sea sooner let GOD bereaue me of my life but onely to make it appeare that our kings carrie together with their Crowne their safe conduct in all places and are not subiect to the trecherous practises of their enemies neere the Pope Notwithstanding you see how these accursed Iesuits enemies of our peace instruct vs in the contrarie that is kindle and prepare vs to reuolt in case our kings should stand in ill termes with the Pope which prooues that it is not without iust cause that by a Decree of the Parliament of Paris they haue beene banisht out of Fraunce CHAP. 18. ¶ The Decree of the Parliament of Paris against the Iesuits in the yeere 1594. and a Chapter taken out of the third booke des Recerches de la Farunce by Stephen Pasquier HAuing dedicated this booke saith Pasquier to the liberties of our Church of Fraunce Lib. 3. de◠Recer ca. 32 I hope I shall not digresse from my purpose if I entreat somewhat of the Sect of the Iesuits which to the subuersion of our State maintayneth principles quite contrarie to ours The Iesuits hauing got into their hands the great legacies giuen and bequeathed them by Maister William du Part Bishop of Clairmont they bought Langres place lying in Saint Iaques street in the Citie of Paris where they after their manner established the forme of a Colledge and of a Monasterie in diuers tenements and taking vpon them to instruct youth without the authoritie of the Rector they made sute sundrie times to be incorporated into the Vniuersitie Which when they could not obtayne they exhibited a petition to the same effect to the Court of Parliament in the yeere 1564. The Vniuersitie did me the honour to choose me in
and declare That wickedly accursedly against the truth hee hath written that the late King was instlie slaine by Iaques Clement and that if the King nowe raigning should not die in the warres he ought to be killed For the which he is hartily sorrie and asketh forginenesse of God the King and the Court. This done to be led to the place of the Greue there to bee hanged vntill hee be dead vppon a Gibbet which shall be there erected for the same purpose And afterwards the dead bodie to be consumed to ashes in a fire which shal be made at the foote of the said Gibbet it hath declared doth declare all and singuler his goods to be forfeited and confiscate to the King Pronounced to the said Iohn Guignard and executed the seauenth day of Ianuarie 1595. ¶ Another sentence against Peter Chastel Father of Iohn Chastell and Iohn Gueret Priest naming himselfe of the Companie and Societie of the Name of Iesus BEing viewed by the Court the great Chamber the Tournell assembled the triall or processe criminall cōmenced by the Controuler of the Kings houshold and since finished at the requisition and demaund of the Kings Atturny generall plaintife against Iohn Gueret priest naming himselfe of the Cōpanie and Societie of the Name of Iesus abiding in the Colledge of Clairmont and heeretofore Schoolemaister to Iohn Chastell lately executed by sentence of the said Court Peter Chastell Cittizen and Draper of the cittie of Paris Denise Hazard his wife the Father mother of the said Iohn Chastell Iohn le Comte and Katherine Chastell his wife Magdelan Chastell the daughter of the said Peter Chastell and Denise Hazard Anthonie Villiers Peter Russell Simona Turin Louisa Camus theyr man and maid-seruaunts Maister Claudius l' Allemant priest Curat of Saint Peters of Arcis Maister Iaques Bernard priest Clarke of the said charge and Maister Lucas Morin priest qualefied in the fame prisoners in the prisons of the Conciergerie of the Pallace examinations confessions and denialls of the saide prisoners confrontation being made of the said Iohn Chastell to the saide Peter Chastell his Father information beeing giuen against the said Peter Chastell the witnes therein heard produced face to face the processe criminall intended against the saide Iohn Chastell by reason of the most execrable and abhominable parricide attempted vppon the person of the King the processe verball of the execution of the sentence of death giuen against the said Iohn Chastell the 29. of December last past The conclusions of the Kings Atturny generall the said Gueret Peter Chastell Hazard being heard and examined in the said Court vpon the matters to them obiected and contayned in the said processe other examination and denialls made by the sayd Gueret and Peter Chastell on the rack or torture to them applied by order of the said Court and all weighed and considered BE IT KNOWNE that the sayd Court for the causes contriued in the said processe hath banished and doth banish the sayd Gueret and Peter Chastell out of the Realme of Fraunce that is to say the said Gueret for euer and the sayd Chastell for the terme space of nine yeeres and for euer out of the cittie suburbs of Paris it is enioyned them to keepe obserue their sentence of banishment vpon paine to be hanged without any other forme or manner of processe it hath declared and doth declare all and singuler the goods of the said Gueret forfeited and confiscate to the King hath condemned and dooth condemne the said Peter Chastell in two thousand crowns for a fine to the king to be employed to the releasing and relieuing of prisoners in the Conciergerie and to remaine in prison vntill the full payment and satisfaction of the said sum neyther shall the time of theyr banishment runne but from the day that he shall haue fully paid the said sum The said Court doth ordaine that the dwelling house of the said Chastell shall be puld downe ruinated and raced and the place made common that no man may heereafter builde thereon In which place for euerlasting memorie of this most wicked and detestable parricide attempted vppon the person of the King there shall be set vp and erected an eminent piller of Marble together with a table wherein shall be written the causes of the said demolition and erection of the said piller which shall be made with the mony arising out of the demolition or pulling downe of the said house And as touching the said Hazard le Comte Katherine and Magdalen Chastell Villiers Russell Turin Camus l' Alemant Bernard and Morin the sayd Court dooth ordaine that they shall be set at libertie Pronounced to the said Hazard le Comte Katherine and Magdalen Chastell Villiers Russell Turin Camus l' Allemant Bernard and Morin the seuenth of Ianuarie to the said Gueret and Peter Chastell the tenth of the said month 1595. These are the three sentences of the Court of Parliament of Paris whereby it appeares what diligence religion and iustice was performed in the whole proceeding how those that were accused were punished more or lesse those that were onely suspected freely discharged and released in a case which concerned the vvhole state of Fraunce Let vs now take a view if you please of the comments which the Iesuits haue made and doe make vpon these sentences for of late they haue againe recouered their speech CHAP. 19. ¶ The Iesuits vnder couert termes chalenge the sentence giuen against Iohn Chastell of iniustice and how GOD suffered him to be punished to make the punishment of the Iesuits more notorious to all posteritie AGainst this Sentence touching Iohn Chastell doe our Iesuits outragiouslie exclaime and making shew as if they would excuse the Court they accuse it of vniustice by it committed in condemning them VVee are saith the hypocriticall Iesuit in his most humble petition presented to the King enemies to Kings the state and your person seducers of youth Against these generall accusations we first oppose the testimonie of the Court of Parliament of Paris The Court had heard the Aduocates which brought and emptied their baggs loden with these weightie accusations it had beene with all importunitie sollicited to condemne vs It had aboue 9. months respite to weigh and ballance the cause that is from the last of Aprill vntill Christmas following It condemned vs not but suffered vs to remaine in peaceable possession of our rights reseruing it selfe to a fitter season to call them to account which had most vncharitably suggested these calumnious accusations against vs. Thinke you that this body of Iustice composed of the most famous ornaments of the Lawe vvhich the world yeelds and of the strongest firmest members of the state if it had seene the least of these crimes as sufficiently prooued as they were maliciously obiected thinke you I say that it would not haue proceeded to condemne vs in the very instant And hauing not condemned vs hath it
Paris Doctores Sorbonici quorum magna pars discipuli nostri fuere The Doctours of the Sorbone a great part whereof haue beene our Schollers And by your Pleas It is certaine that for those fewe yeeres a great part of the Bachelers of Diuinitie the better sort of them haue spent the course of their studies in our Colledge Which caused mee somewhat to suspect that thys conclusion had been before handled frō time to time in your Lectures I read in the same Letter that notwithstanding you were inhibited by Gregorie the 13. to come at any Processions yet as soone as the Reuolt was concluded on one of your Societie to stirre the people against theyr King assembled three or foure thousand boyes which he led in procession all ouer the cittie with a rabble of all sorts of people at their heeles I read in another place that about that verie time you instituted in Lyons the Brotherhood of our Lady and in Burges of the Paenitents vnder the name of Ieronomitans not to appease the wrath of GOD but to prouoke it against the late King And as I was turning ouer your Letters there commeth in Father Iames Commolet whom I name with al due title of honor who with teares standing in his eyes as one that at al times hath teares at commaundement confessed vnto me that the day following this determination of the Sorbone hee in a Sermon made at the Church of Saint Meri publiquely preached that the whole Sorbone was resolued to take Armes against the King if any should oppose themselues to withstand it they ought not to thinke it strange in asmuch as in that number which followed our Sauiour the most perfit societie that euer was there was one Iudas found And that thereuppon the people ranne head-long to Armes Wherein hee ingeniously confessed his fault in concealing from the people that this Resolution vvas referred to the pleasure and arbitrement of the holie Sea Furthermore that the 15. of the same Month certaine of the chiefe and principall Iudges of the Court of Parliament beeing committed prysoners to the Bastille he went to visite and comfort them and for theyr consolation preached nothing else but of the tyrannie of King Henrie the third thereby to stirre and excite them to rebelliou that he who had been their king should be so no longer Moreouer that as long as the Troubles endured hee was a Trumpet in all Churches to rend and deface the reputation as well of the late King as of him that nowe raigneth but that this was vsuall with all Preachers and therefore the more excusable in him Which Montaignes did not denie excusing it by the heate and choller vvhich is incident to Preachers when they are in the Pulpit With that a troublesome fellow whispering mee in the care bad me looke to my selfe For saith he that which he termes choler he would say it were the holie Spirit if he durst I told him hee was a busie companion and bad him hold his tongue if hee could All thys did Commolet cōfesse he had done in Paris but Father Bernard Ronillet proceeded on further acknowledged that by his packing and preaching hee had vvithdrawne the cittie of Bourges from the obedience of the King But aboue all the Confession of Father Alexander Hayes did most satisfie me who entertained me with these words Right honourable Pasquill seeing you charge and coniure me in the name of God and in vertue of the Apostolicall censures I will deliuer my whole knovvledge as well concerning the proceedings of our Colledge at Paris as mine owne particuler actions in thys busines As touching the generall I must confesse to you that vppon the first breaking out of the Troubles wee presently instituted within our Colledge of Paris a Brotherhoode which we named a Congregation in the honour of our Lady beeing for that cause called the Congregation of the Chappelet because the Brethren of that Companie were bound to carry a Chappelet or payre of Beades and to say it ouer once a day Into this Congregation did all the zealous and deuout personages of our holy League cause themselues to be enrolled the Lord Mendoza Embassadour for the Catholick King of Spayne the Sixteene Gouernours of Paris with their whole families and diuers other holy religious persons whereof I haue kept no register neither was it any part of my charge Our Congregation was kept euery Sonday in a certaine high Chappell where all the brotherhood vvas bound to be present if there were no necessarie cause of let or impediment There were we all seuerally confessed on the Saturdayes and on Sonday wee receiued the Sacrament When Masse was done one of our Fathers went into the Pulpet and there exhorted all the Audience to continue stedfast in their holy deuotion which at this day is in Fraunce called Rebellion sith it pleaseth the Magistrats to haue it so I cannot be against it This done all the common sort departed and those of greatest place and authoritie stayed behind to consult about the affayres of the holy League Our good Father Odon Pigenat vvas long time President of that Counsell And this briefely in the summe of what I am able to deliuer as touching the generall proceedings of the whole Colledge As concering my selfe in particular you must vnderstand that those that know mee call me Father Alexander Hayes the Scot who during the troubles was Regent of the first Forme of our Colledge for the space of 3. or 4. yeeres Not to recapitulate the whole but some of the principall and most notable acts of my historie which may peraduenture giue light to the residue I read to mine Auditours Demosthenes his Inuectiues against Phillip king of Macedonia where in I some-what suited with our good Father Commolet for as hee wrested to his purpose all the texts of Scripture against the n = * A by-name which the leaguers gaue the king that now is for that he was borne in Biarne Biarnois giue me leaue to vse that terme before your Highnes which was then currant in Paris so did I play by the Philippica which to say truth were not Lectures but despightful railings against him which I amplified accordingly as I was caried by a violent kind of deuotition which I was neuer able to bridle or restraine For it was an ordinary braunch of my Lectures that he were a happy man whosoeuer could kill him if he fortuned to die in the execution of so blessed an enterprise hee should goe directly into Paradise and though his soule were stained with some veniall sinnes yet should it be exempted from the paines of Purgatory And if God should so much afflict the citie of Paris as that the Biarnois should enter passe through S. Iames his gate I made open protestation that I would leape downe vpon him frō the highest window in our Colledge being assuredly perswaded that this fall would serue me for a ladder to clime vp into heauen That
paused a while which gaue the Gentleman occasion to say vnto him I assure you Sir I cannot but much commend your inuention in representing this matter in the person of Stones For seeing men will not speake stones must their dealinges beeing such as you haue shewed and prooued not by proofes at randon and vncertaine but most infallible and drawne out of their owne bookes But how commeth it to passe that this being so notoriously knowne and remayning of record yet neuerthelesse there be certaine Courts of Parliament within the Realme which doe not onely receiuâ—â—â—em but honor cherish and embrace them within their Cities and iurisdictions I did expect you should aske me that question quoth the Aduocate and was about to haue entred thereinto of my selfe had you not preuented mee Thinke it not straunge it should be so it is a mysterie hidden in the secret counsell of God who hath not wholy withdrawn his wrath from vs but intendeth one day to vse these as his instruments to bring more plagues vpon vs. Neuerthelesse doe not you thinke but that those other Parliaments haue some great shew of reason for their doings Did you neuer see a new Testament wherein the histories were drawne in pictures In that place of the Gospell where our Sauiour is tempted in the desart Sathan is pictured in the habit of a Munke Some Lucianists sticke not to say that thereby is vnderstood that the life and conuersation of Munks is Diabolicall But I am of a contrarie opinion For whosoeuer the Painter was that in this matter of the temptatioÌ„ deuised to cloth the Diuell in those weeds he did it not without great consideration iudging that this being the true habit of piety there was no way more readie certain to surprise the consciences of well meaning men then by it The Diuel after he had set forth diuers mommeries of religious Orders he meant to set his rest vpon this and transforming himselfe into Ignacius and his adherents to pretend the holy name of Iesus and to promise by the mouth of the Iesuits not onely terrestriall kingdomes to Princes wherewith they would inuest them as Sathan did to our Sauiour but also the kingdome of heauen to such as would execute their malice against those Kings that were their enemies Wherein the Diuell hath not much missed of his ayme For vnder this glorious name hath he abused and onerreached our Popes their holines and consequently a number of religious soules And as himselfe is the Spirit of Diuision so is it no meruaile if the Iesuits his true and lawfull children enioy the same priuiledge that their father doth They haue caused diuision between themselues and our Prelates of Fraunce betweene themselues and the Vniuersities betweene Popes and Kings betweene Popes and other Prelats if now they cause a new dissension amongst our Parliaments of Fraunce they haue done that which onely was wanting to the ful and absolute accomplishment of the Sorbones prophecie when in her censure of the Iesuits Sect in the yeere 1554 she saith Multas in populo querelas multas lites dissidia contentiones aemulatioues variaque schismata inducit It breadeth many quarrels controuersies discords contentions emulations and many divisions amongst the people The Parliament of Paris vpon mature wise deliberation hath banished theÌ„ out of their iurisdiction Some other Parliaments doe retaine them albeit the attemps of Barriere and Chastell vppon the person of the King be vnto them notoriously knowne and that they were the first plotters and contriuers of our troubles When I thinke of these dissentions I am put in minde of a discreet aunswere made by King Henry the second touching the case of Pelisson President of the Parliament of Chamberi who by the sentence of the Parliament of Digeon was depriued of his office besides sundry other disgraces which he receiued vpon the complaint and information of Tabouè Atturny generall Afterward obtayning Letters for a second examination and and the cause being remoued to the Parliament of Paris he was restored to his office and Tabouè condemned to make him honourable amends bare-headed in his shirt with a halter about his neck The King beeing informed of these proceedings in both the Courts of parliament wisely made aunswer that he esteemed all his Iudges to be men of honestie vprightnes but that they of the parliament of Digeon had iudged according to their consciences and they of Paris according to right and iustice I make no doubt but that all the Iudges of other parliaments are by their consciences induced thereunto but this I say that there was neuer any thing decreed in Court more sufficiently and sincerely then this was by the parliament of Paris The other as I suppose are swayed by the authority of the holy Sea supporting the Iesuits which is no small aduantage for them to leane vnto notwithstanding I will oppugne them by the same authoritie beseeching them not to take in euill part this admonition which in all dutie humilitie I offer vnto their coÌ„siderations not doubting but after they haue heard me if at least they please to giue me hearing they will theÌ„selues condemne this their opinion You haue heeretofore vnderstood how at two seuerall times our Iesuits had practised the murder of the King and not at that time when hee was deuided from vs in religion but euen then when he was reconciled to our Church in the time of a truce desiring nothing else but a generall vnion and reconcilement of all his subiects throughout the Realme They are highly fauoured at Rome as the Iuie which seemeth outwardly to succour the wall when as inwardly it eateth into it but if they had euer conspired any attempt against the Popes person I am out of doubt that by the Decree of that great and holy Consistorie of Rome theyr Order would haue beene put downe and abolished for euer At the least I haue seene the like practise in a case not vnlike for a matter not so dangerous for example nor of such consequence as that shewed vppon the whole Order of the Humiliati I will acquaint you with the historie CHAP. 22. ¶ How the Order of Humiliatj was suppressed by Decree of the Consistorie of Rome and that there is greater cause to suppresse the Iesuits then the Humiliatj THis Order in outward appearance like this of the Iesuits promised so great sanctitie and deuotion as Cardinall Borrhomao the Archbishop of Millan vvould needes take vpon him the patronage and protection thereof This good Prelate perceiuing that the greatest part of them gaue themselues ouer to a voluptuous and dissolute kinde of life tooke in hand to reforme them which some of them tooke in such indignitie dignitie as that they vowed his death There was a Guardian of that Order resident in the Cittie of Versellis his name was Girolano Lignana who with certaine other his confederats vndertakes this execution And to make way to their purpose they resolued to kill Frier Fabio
and afterwards by way of parable in great iollitie before the people maintained it in the pulpit And yet were there but this sole example in this kinde I should be verie iniurious to challenge theyr whole sect but when wee see it is theyr continuall practise what shall we say As for instance theyr attempt against the deceased Prince of Orange at Antwerpe Afterwards in the towne of Trierres where he was murthered At Doway likewise against the Counte Maurice his sonne At Venice Lyons Paris against the Queene of England in the yeere 1584. Againe against her in Spayne in the yeere 1597. In Scotland against the Chauncellor Metellinus Againe in Fraunce that in Paris against our King in the yeere 1594 by one of theyr schollers Chastell who in open Court before the face of the Iudges was so shamelesse to maintaine that in certaine cases it was lawfull to kill his king Now if the rule of Logitians be true that from manie particulers a generall may be concluded I thinke I may truly affirme that their axiom whereuppon they ground theyr massacring of Kings Princes and great personages is as naturall and as familiar vnto them as the rest of theyr vowes It is most certaine they consented to the death of the late king and that Guignard one of their order since executed made as I told you a booke wherein hee maintaineth that the death of such offenders is meritorious and that the king now liuing should be serued so to Hetherto you haue heard mee discourse vnder the name of the venerable Pasquill of Rome notwithstanding the things themselues are serious and true Among others there is a booke made by the Iesuit Montaignes Principall of the Seminarie of Reims vppon the same subiect Arnauld hauing in his pleading obiected it vnto him Montaignes made no hast to aunswere it although in things more friuolous his pen hath euer been too busie For conclusion all their actions all theyr plots are barbarous and bloodie Which occasioned a pleasant Gentleman of Fraunce hauing in a little Poem briefly discouered their deuilish practises in his conclusion to say thus of them Gesum is a warre-like weapon vsed by the French as Liuie Festus Nonius and Sosipater testisie A Gesis sunt indita nomina vobis Quae quia sacrilegi Reges torquet is in omnes Inde sacrum nomen sacrum sumpsistis omen Of Gesum not Iesus are Iesuits hight A fatall toole the French-men vsed in fight Which sith by sacriledge at Kings you throw From hence your holy name and fortunes flow Notwithstanding any thing can be sayde to the contrarie yet this conclusion still must stande inuiolable The particuler offender is to be punished the Order not to be touched as beeing farre from the thought of such impietie Who is so braine-sicke to belieue it I vvill not abuse your patience by reckoning vp the tumults and seditions they haue caused in our state I knovve the great Maisters of our Common-wealth respect them as men very zealous ouer the good of their Country I beseech them to consider whether that I haue sayd be true or no Other Rhetoricke I will not vse to draw them to my opinion And because I haue begunne this discourse vvith the Decree graunted in Rome against the Humiliati I vvill vrge the same againe to make it plaine vnto you with what impudencie the Iesuits ward thys blow CHAP. 23. ¶ The impudencie of the Iesuits to saue themselues from the processe of the Consistorie of Rome granted out against the order of the Humiliati ARnauld first of all in the yeere 1594. Marion the Kings Attorney since in 97. declare that the Order of the Humiliati was in our time suppressed for lesse cause then the Iesuits deserue to be The one and the other in few words This is the position I maintaine Let vs see how the Iesuits will ward this blow Montaignes writing against Arnauld sayth Montaig ca. 59. To strengthen your weake assertion you bring the example of the Order of the Humiliati which were suppressed in Italy You are farre wide the cases are nothing alike The causes of their suppression are mentioned in the Bull namely that they were irrigular imperious and incorrigible They conspired against their Prelat their Protector and reformer and the executor of the conspiracie being taken discouered the rest who likewise confessed the fact You cannot affirme the same of the Iesuits could you it is like you would not spare them I am of the Iesuits mind they are nothing like indeed For the question was there but of a Prelat wherof there is plentie here of a King of which fort we had no more who is Gods true annoynted The conspirator of the Humiliati was punished as soone as he was taken the Iesuit was not for after they had brought him backe from Paris as to them nothing is impossible they found meanes for his escape In truth this defence of Montaignes is full of preuarication and therefore La Fon denieth it Concerning the Humiliati saith hee it hath beene answered heretofore by Francis Montaignes that they were sensual licentious vnlearned irregular without discipline scandalous whose houses were Princes Pallaces their chambers garnished like Kings Cabinites Their Cloisters Galleries full of lasciuious pictures Their Prouost keeping a publique Curtisan all the rest of the Prouosts diet In the end they were conuict of treasonable practise against the person of their Prelate the Cardinall Borrhomeo a man of verie holy life labouring by all meanes to reclayme them Their cause was exactly heard the crimes examined debated and iudged by our holy Father the Pope to whom the cognisance of such causesproperly belongeth who condēned them not to depart out of Italy but to liue confined vnder other religious as Pentioners depriued of their possessiōs of whom some liue at this day in Milan And hereof all Millan is witnesse togither with the Bull thereof likewise extant My purpose was to haue made a comparison betwixt the Humiliati the Iesuits therby to show that there is much more reason to suppresse the Iesuits now then there was cause then to dissolue the Humiliati But the impudencie of this last Iesuit presseth me to encounter him before I passe any further What a strange comment is this he maketh vpon his fellow Montaignes Where findeth he either in Montaignes or in the Bull those crimes which he mentioneth where findeth he this same conspiracie in person against the Cardinal Borrhomaeo where findeth he the Prouosts Curtisan was there but one Prouost in this order Had not euery Priory one Had this Prouost no name It is an vse the Iesuit hath gotten when hee begins to tell tales he leaues not till he haue told twentie But to bring him to the touch Let vs see the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus it wil easily appeare whether his allegations be Alchimie or no. PIVS EPISCOPVS SERVVS seruorum Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam QVE MAD
not haue beene auoyded but their Generall the Prouincialls of their Order and the Priors of their Monasteries must haue beene of the conspiracie or at the least some part of them A clause which would not haue beene forgotten in the Decree that Pope Pius the fift the holy Consistorie of Rome sent out hauing so great intention finallie to suppresse them And this is the reason the Iesuits haue layed this condemnation most falsely vppon all the Order who had in Chapter as they say conspired against Borrhomeo Let vs acknowledge a truth like the children of Christ and not like the disciples of Ignacius This Order vvas growne very infamous by reason of their incontinency and licentious life the which the good Cardinall Borrhomaeo would haue helpt if it had beene possible This was I must confesse a fault and that verie foule and scandalous yet for this it is like they should not haue beene suppressed It is a vice whereunto naturally wee are prone Insomuch that hee who would suppresse all houses of Religion where this vice aboundeth especially those which are seated in places farre from resort wee may say with Tacitus Vt antea vitijs ita tum demuÌ„ legibus laboraremus And there might be peraduenture more scandale in suppressing then in winking at theyr vices How then What caused the suppression It vvas GODS will that vnexpectedly Lignana Pryor of Versellis and some others angry with this new reformation conspired against Borrhomaeo as it is expressed in the Bull. And this ryot was the cause of the suppression and this is the cause the Bull dooth recount theyr disorders in generall but specially theyr attempt against Borrhomaeo The which is set downe verie particularlie and not the incontinencies which La Fon reciteth VVhat is there in this storie but will fit the Iesuits as well as if it were made for them They are notorious throughout the world for the troubles raised by them in Fraunce And as manifest it is that they practised and bargained with a stranger to bring in a newe King into this kingdome The detestable fact of Barriere The howlings of Commolet to the people to kill the King euen in the time of the truce The people vvith one mouth from the youngest to the most aged cried vengeance on them so soone as the King reentred Paris The cause was pleaded in the name of the Vniuersitie and as it falleth out oftentimes that in matter of iudgement where the cause is of consequence while we feare to be negligent wee growe ouer-curious so heere the cause was referred to counsaill GOD would so haue it that Chastell a disciple of the Iesuits poysoned vvith theyr damnable positions wounded the King with a knife and beeing taken hee maintained in the open face of iustice that hee might doe it lawfully The haynousnes of thys fact aggrauated with other circumstances gaue occasion of the pronouncing the processe against the whole Order Nowe I pray you tell mee if the same holie Ghost which wrought in the suppression of the Humiliati had not a stroke likewise in driuing the Iesuits out of Paris They are the same things the same proceedings vnder seuerall names Theyr difference is in these two poynts The one that the Humiliati in being too subiect to their pleasure sinned yet committed such a sinne as our corrupt nature teacheth vs but the Iesuits beeing the principall Authours of the troubles wherein two hundred thousand lost theyr liues haue sinned against GOD against nature For nature abhorres nothing more then death which is so cheape among the Iesuits to the losse of others The other difference is that the attempt of Lignana was but against a Cardinall whoÌ„ I acknowledge willingly to be one of the holiest men our age yeeldeth A Cardinall whom the Colledge would be loth to spare yet notwithstanding hee liues and liueth in as great reputation as euer hee did Whereas the attempt of Chastell endangered a King sole in his kingdome such a king as the world must yeeld to bee as valiant wise and curteous as anie before him and by whose death if the treason had sorted to effect wee were to expect nothing but horrour and confusion our olde inhabitants And yet they must be cherrished in some part of the kingdome But because some not remembring or not obseruing things past others not foreseeing lesse laboring to preuent dangers to come suffer themselues to be abused by them accounting them the Champions and protectors of the Catholick faith I wil make it manifest vnto you that their sect is as dangerous as Martin Luthers that there is nothing the Pope hath more to feare as preiudiciall to his authority and greatnes then their Generall what showes and protestations soeuer they make to the contrary notwithstanding CHAP. 24. ¶ That the Sect of the Iesuits is no lesse dangerous to our Church then the Lutherans THis position may seeme at the first sight Paradoxicall but it is true The distribution of the hierarchicall Order of our Church hath a proportion and correspondeÌ„cy with the humane body wherin the head coÌ„mandeth ouer the other members amongst the which there are certaine noble parts as the hart the liuer the lungs without which the bodie cannot consist So as hee who would take from the head to adde to the noble parts or diminish them to giue vnto the head disordering the proportion and correspondency which should bee betwixt the members hee should confound destroy the bodie So is it in our hierarchy the head of the Church is our holy father the Pope the noble parts vnder him are the Archbishops Bishoppes Cardinals Priors Abbots I will adde Princes Lords Vniuersities as for the rest of the people they represent the other members of the body Martin Luther was the first who durst traduce this head bringing in a form of Aristocratie into our Church making all the Bishops in their seueral dioceses equall to the Sea Apostolique There succeeded him Ignactius Loyhola some yeeres after who by a contrarie course defended the authoritie of the holy Sea but after such a fashion as hee no lesse endamaged our Church then theirs For pretending more zeale to the Sea and our holy Father then the rest and still intituling him to more predominant and new authoritie ouer the Ordinaries hee and his successiuely obtaynd from diuers Popes so many Priuiledges Indulgences and Graunts in disaduantage of the Prelats Monasteries and Vniuersities that suffering them to liue in the midst of vs you disfigure stain the face of the Catholique and Vniuersall Church RemeÌ„ber what the Iesuit said to you this other day you will find my words true The difference betwixt Luther and Ignace is that hee troubled our Church fighting against the head And this warring against the noble parts All extremitie is a vice vertue is â—â—â—ympiere betwixt both For mine owne part I beleeâ—â—â—hat the true Catholique Apostolick Roman faith is that which hath bin in vse euer
he vsed And that you may not thinke that this Maxime proceedeth from the pliantnes of their consciences which they restraine or extend as best fitteth their profit their good Father Ignace first taught them this dispensation whereof since they haue made a particular constitution The other holy Fathers founders of diuers orders of Religion established diuers ordinances which they fastened if I may so speake with nailes of Diamond in tombs of brasse which should perpetually be obserued by their Munks and other Religious In the Sect of Iesuits there is nothing so certaine as their vncertaintie as I said of late In the Bull of Pope Paule the third it is written as followeth Et quod possint constitutiones particulares quas ad Societatis huiusmodi finem Iesu Christi Domini nostri gloriam ac proximi vtilitateÌ„ conformes esse iudieauerint condere tam hactenus factas quam in posterum faciendas constitutiones ipsas iuxta locorum temporuÌ„ reruÌ„ qua litatem varietatem mutare alterare seu in totum cassare alias de nouo condere possint valeant Quae postea alteratae mutatae seu de nouo conditae fuerint eo ipso Apstolicae sedis authoritate praefata confirmatae censeaniur cadem Apostolica authoritate de speciali gratia indulgemus That they may make saith Pope Paule particular ordinances which they shal iudge fit for the Societie to the glory of our Lord Iesus Christ and the profit of their neighbour And that such as are alreadie made or shall be made hereafter they may chaunge alter or abolish according to the varietie of place time and occasions and in steed of them make new the which so chaunged reuoked or new made we will that they be confirmed by the foresaid authoritie of the Apostolique Sea and by the same authoritie of our speciall grace and fauour we confirme them I haue translated this place word for word and yet when the Bull saith in Latine that the constitutions may be chaunged as shall be fit for the Societie it must be vnderstood for the maintenance and aduancement of the Order Out of this generall constitution they haue drawne one particular which is woorthie to be knowne in the 16. part of their constitutions Chapter 5. the title beginning thus Quod Constitutiones peccati obligationem non inducunt Cum exoptet Societas vniuersas suas Constitutiones declarationes ac viuendi ordinem omnino iuxta nostrum institutum nihil vltraan re declinando obseruari Optet etiam nihilominus suos omnes securos esse vet certè adiuuari ne in laqueum vllius peccati quod ex vi constuationum huiusmodi aut ordinationum proueniat incidant visum est nobis in Domino vt excepto expresso voto quo Societas summo Pontifici pro tempore existente tenetur aecâ—tribus alijs essentialibus Paupertatis Castitatis Obedientiae nullas Constitutiones declarationes vel ordinem vllum viuends posse obligationem ac peccatum mortale vel veniale inducere Nisi Superior ea in nomine Domini Iesu Christi vel in virtute obedientiae iuberet And a little after Et loco timoris offensae succedat amor desiderium omnis perfectionis vt maior gloria laus Christi creatâ—ris ac Domini nostri consequatur That the constitutions may not bind any man in conscience sith the Societie desires that all their constitutions declarations and order of life should be without euasion conformable to our direction and also neuerthelesse wisheth to be secured or at least succourd that they be not snared in any sin which may grow by theyr constitutions or ordinances We haue thought good in the Lord exception taken to the expresse vow wherewith the societie is bound to the Pope for the time beeing and the three other essentiall vowes of Pouertie Chastitie and Obedience that no Constitutions declarations or any order of life shall impose any yoake of mortall or veniall sinne vpon them vnlesse their Superiour commaund those thinges in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ or in the vertue of obedience And againe In stedde of feare of offending let loue and desire of all perfection come in place and let the glory praise of Christ our Lord and Maker be the more exalted By the first article it is lawfull for them to change rechange their constitutions at their own pleasure forsooth for their good By the second their constitutions are held in regard of the soule indifferent so that the Iesuit may breake them without committing mortall or veniall sinne A law which their great Law-giuer gaue them to the end that to Gods honour and glory there might be fewer sinners in theyr societie Oh holy soules oh pure consciences Who restrayning their inferiours from sinne take themselues the reines committing all manner of sinne vncontrouled Let vs examine these poynts without passion and let vs consider the scope of these two propositions By the first no Prince shall be assured of his estate and by the second no Prince shal be secure of his person in his own kingdome Concerning the first poynt call to minde howe matters haue beene carried for these 25. or 30. yeeres There hath beene no Nation where they be fostered but they would be tempering with their affaires of state I think they are such honest men as what herein they haue done they haue vndertaken to doe it by vertue of their silent Constitutions which the auncient Romans termed Senatus-Consulta tacita or if they did it by their owne priuate authoritie the Generall vvere vnworthy of his place should he suffer it Further this was forbidden them in the yeere 1593 when they sawe all their plots meere frustrate Admit newe troubles should arise these gallants will cassiere and disanull this last Ordinaunce suffering their companions to intermedle as before This same Pauline will it not breede in them a trouble-state where euer they become â—manuel Saâ—n his Aphoâ—ismes of confession Montag cap. 58. But what are their rules in such affaires Marry that it is lawfull to kill a Tyrant That a King breaking and contemning the common lawes of the Land may be depriued of his Crowne by the people That there are other causes for the which Princes and great personages may be slaine In what a miserable condition shall Princes liue if the assurance of theyr Estate shall depend vpon these fellowes Let vs see their newe constitutions of 93. I will that they meddle not at all in affaires of state in generall termes And that particulerly they practise not vpon the person of Princes Are they bound to obey this Nothing lesse Inasmuch as their Lawgiuer chargeth not their consciences but in expresse termes he would otherwise haue charged them by vertue of their blinded obedience And this is the cause that Commolet preaching since this new Statute that there wanted a newe Chud to kill our King and Walpoole furnishing Squire with poyson and instructions to kill the
thereof there is not any King or Prince that can defend himselfe from their stings Chap. 1 Touching an extraordinarie processe and course held in the Low countries against Robert Bruse Gentleman of Scotland vpon the accusation information of Father William Critchton Iesuit because he would not cause the Chauncellor of Scotland to the slaine Cha. 2 Concerning the murther which William Parrie an English man thrust on thereto by the Iesuits meant to execute against Elizabeth Queene of England in the yeere 1584. Chap. 3 Of another assault and murther procured in the yeere 1597. by the Iesuits against the Queene of England Chap. 4 That the Iesuits doe at this day make shew to condemne their wicked doctrine in all things concerning eyther the murthering of Princes or rebellion against their states Chap. 5 A prodigious historie of the detestable parricide attempted against King Henry the fourth of that name the most Christian King of Fraunce and Nauarre by Peter Barrier for the raysing vp of the Iesuits Chap. 6 How the heathenish impietie of the Iesuits had been preiudiciall to our Church if their execrable counsel had come to an effect Ch. 7 Of the murther which Iohn Chastell brought vp at Paris in the Iesuits schoole sought to attempt against the King in the yeere 1594. Chap. 8 That it is an heresie to approoue the killing of Kings although they be heretiques Chap. 9 A memorable act of Ignace wherupon the Iesuits haue learnd to kill or cause to be killed all such as stand not to their opinioÌ„s Ch. 10 Of the holy League brought by the Iesuits the yeere 1585. into Fraunce and that they are the cause of the Hugonots new footing among vs. Chap. 1. That Auricular confession hath been vsed by the Iesuits as a chiefe weapon for the rebellion and in what sort they are wont to mannage it Chap. 12 Of a general assembly of the Iâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 in the 〈◊〉 1593. wherin they are proâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I le in mâ—â—â—â—rs of State Chap. 13 Whether the Iesuits haue Spanish hâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 their enemies charge them to haue or if they be for who giues most Chap. 14 That the Iesuits were the cause of the â—eâ—th of Mary Queene of Scots together with a briefe discourse what mischiefes they haue wrought in England Chap. 15 That the Iesuits entermedling at matters of State after they haue troubled whole Realmes yet doe all things fall out quite contrarie to their expectation Chap. 16 That the Pope hath not power to translate the Crowne of Fâ—â—nce from one to another against the dangeroâ—â— pâ—â—â—â—â—ons of the Iesuits and some other discourse tending to the same eâ—â—â—ctâ— Chap. 17 The Decree of the Parliament of Paris 〈…〉 Iesuits in the yeere 1594. And a chapter taken out of the â—â—d bâ—â—â—â—â— des Reserches de la Fraunce by Stephen Pasquier Chap. 18 The Iesuits vnder couert termes chalenge the sentence 〈◊〉 against Iohn Chastell of iniustice how God suffâ—ed him 〈…〉 â—â—â—ished to make the punishment of Iesuiâ—â— moâ—e notorious 〈◊〉 posteritie Chap. 19 Of the Pyramis which is raised before the Pallace of Paâ—â—â— and of the sentence giuen in Rome by the renowmed Pasquiâ—ll concerning the restauration of the Iesuits sued for by themselues Chap. 20 Of the diuision which seemes to be in the Parlaments or Iâ—risdictions of Fraunce as concerning the Iesuits and what may be the cause thereof Chap. 21 How the order of the Humiliati was suppressed by Decree of the Consistorie of Rome And that there is greater cause to suppresse the Iesuits then the Humiliati Chap. 22 Of the impudency of the Iesuits to saue themseues from the processe of the consistorie of Rome granted out against the order of the Humiliati Chap. 23 That the Sect of the Iesuits is no lesse daungerous to our Church then the Lutherans Chap. 24 Of the notorious enterprize or vsurpation of the Generall of the Iesuits ouer the holy Sea and that there is no new Sect which in time may be more preiudiciall to it then this Chap. 25 That there is no credit to be giuen to the promises and protestations of Iesuits for that they 〈◊〉 no faith but such as maketh for the effecting of their purposes Chap. 26 The conclusion of the third Booke containing the restoring of the Iesuits by them procured Chap. 27 FINIS